Reuters reports that MidAmerican Energy is expected to soon issue a second tranche of its Topaz solar bond. MidAmerican is owned by Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway (does this give the bond a halo effect)? Barclays Capital, Citi and Royal Bank of Scotland are underwriting.
Canada’s Next Era Energy recently issued an asset-backed $175m, 19 year solar bond. Rating BBB, interest rate 4.80%.
Warren Buffet is a famous proponent of value investing and he surely received a sign of the value in solar investments over fossil fuels last week. The MidAmerican Energy $850m Topaz solar project bond we mentioned a couple of weeks ago was so successful that a second tranche is expected to cover the remaining debt of the project. The offer was oversubscribed by $400m which would have mopped up the total $1.2bn of debt in the project; Buffet is a shareholder in MidAmerican.
