Deal Platform

When we started Conductor, we built a platform to help developers and EPCs find PPA investors with a focus on C&I projects. It’s still a big part of our business. But as we’ve grown, we’ve been pulled into larger projects and portfolios of different types from experienced sellers. 

These opportunities typically come from a) developers who regularly sell to IPPs, and b) IPPs who sell to one another. We’ll look at each of these groups and why they use the platform. But a common theme between them is their interest in our buyer network, targeted match making, deal process, and market insights. And what that all boils down to is getting an attractive price from a buyer who is positioned to execute efficiently.

The shifting buyer landscape
The market for new project acquisitions is dynamic and opaque. Some changes over time, like hurdle rates, can be seen at a macro level. Others are specific to investors who are constantly evaluating market opportunities across a shifting economic landscape, and updating their priorities accordingly. 

The right partner for a deal today can be very different from the right partner six months ago, let alone a couple of years ago. And since project development takes months if not years to complete, sellers are almost always working from an outdated mental model of the buyer landscape.

The developer perspective
Experienced developers know how to de-risk and sell projects and portfolios. They’ve done it before and they know buyers who might be interested. They come to us for two things: 1) a broader buyer network including new deal partners tailored to specific opportunities in their pipelines, and 2) a dedicated team and software platform to help them manage the deal.

A lot of developers start using Conductor on their weirdest projects. They might have a strong pipeline of community solar projects and a handful of behind the meter C&I projects, or vice versa. They might have a portfolio in a different state under a different policy regime. They might have a long track record of development for corporations with credit ratings, but they’re not sure what to do with a one-off deal for a nonprofit’s 10 warehouse facilities, or vice versa. 

Our buyer network spans the entire middle market of C&I, community solar, and small utility projects. If there is an IPP out there who can fund a project, chances are they’re on Conductor. And chances are their pricing will be better than most developers imagine. What developers then realize is how much we can help their core business and scale their team. 

Our process for finding the best buyer works for developers' bread and butter portfolios just like it does for their weirdest projects. We don’t need exclusivity, so we can compliment their existing network with additional buyers on our platform. And we’re very confident in our ability to bring the right party to the table. The median bid spread in the marketplace is 15% of project value, and remember that this is only among bids from very targeted, competitive IPPs. Once developers see this in practice, they hesitate to go to market without it.

Developers also value the depth of our team’s experience in renewable energy project M&A. It’s like having a C-level M&A exec or an investment banker on the deal without excessive salaries or fees. Even companies with commercial teams find Conductor complementing their staff. And our software is an extension of our team in many ways. It keeps information structured and accessible and replaces a lot of activity that would otherwise happen via scattered emails and differently labeled documents and file hierarchies.

All of this results in more successful transactions, higher close rates, and better pricing for developers. The key for us in driving these outcomes is getting the important things right from the start. We surface the most important issues and focus attention on resolving them so that the rest of the deal can move forward with ease. 

The IPP perspective
The core business of IPPs is owning and operating power generation assets. Add in batteries to manage dispatch these days. But it’s still a business of owning and operating infrastructure for distributed electricity generation. So why would an IPP sell projects?

A byproduct of the shifting buyer landscape is projects and portfolios that were once the focus of IPPs becoming orphaned or sidelined. When IPPs change the type of projects they’re seeking, what happens to the other projects in their pipelines at various stages of development? More and more these days, they’re showing up for sale on Conductor. 

IPPs build very effective processes for finding and investing in projects and portfolios. Some also develop projects, bringing them to the finish line from earlier stages of development. But because they’re typically buying instead of selling, they don’t have processes and teams optimized for project and portfolio sales.

Selling can also be a delicate matter for IPPs. The buyer is typically another IPP, at least in some ways a competitor. It also feels like admitting a mistake - “we wanted this before, but now we don’t.” So it’s not something that IPPs usually want to publicize.

Conductor solves this with a number of controls for the seller and a process focused on quality over quantity. In the platform, the seller can choose to show or not show their portfolio to specific buyers and when to grant access to documents in their data room. When Conductor matches buyers to a portfolio, it’s a handful of highly qualified parties instead of the dozens or hundreds of parties that might see the opportunity in an open bulletin board or via outreach from an investment banker.

The right level of service
As we’ve been pulled into working with these parties, we’ve added another level of service as an option for larger deals. While we support both parties to facilitate transactions on all of the deals in our marketplace, sellers have been increasingly asking us to represent them specifically and manage the deal on their behalf. For this we created a seller rep program available, but not required, on deals over $20M in value. If you’re interested in exploring how your team can use Conductor to optimize projects and portfolio sales, let’s talk.