$300M deal to grow One Energy

Findlay-based wind turbine builder One Energy Enterprises is expected to get a $300 million-plus supply of cash from an investment group for growth opportunities. One Energy and TortoiseEcofin Acquisition Corp. III have agreed to merge, pending approvals by the Securities and Exchange Commission and shareholders. The approvals could take three to six months. One Energy will bring its business model and industry expertise and TortoiseEcofin will bring its $300 million to form a new public company: One Power Co., to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "ONEP." "This ends up being a very large cash injection for us and puts us in the public market so we can get better access to bigger and better forms of capital as we grow," said One Energy Chief Executive Officer Jereme Kent. Kent will be CEO of One Power, which will be the new name for what now is One Energy. "When our merger with Tortoise is complete, we will be the surviving company. They will go away," Kent said. "We will keep whatever money they have in trust and they will end up with some equity in our company." One Energy operates throughout Ohio, including wind turbines it built and which supply electricity to Whirlpool Corp., Ball Corp. and Valfilm in Findlay. One Energy has become the nation's largest installer and operator of wind-generated electricity directly supplied to customers from outside the grid. One Energy has about 65 employees. With the cash injection from TortoiseEcofin, it will be poised to expand into other states. Kent declined to say how many employees would be added as a result of the growth. "Our plan is to continue to execute on what has been a successful business plan of installing power systems, including wind turbines for large factories throughout the heartland," he said. "This (investment by TortoiseEcofin) is just meant to accelerate the pace we can grow to do that." In business parlance, Tortoise is a "special purpose acquisition company," or SPAC, whose sole purpose is to find a company that is not public and to merge with it to make it public, he said. "They found us," Kent said. "After reviewing and talking with us, they decided that we would be a good partner and so we signed a business combination agreement." Besides showing confidence in One Energy, the cash investment by Tortoise signals a strong future for green energy. Kent said that's an oversimplification. "The phrase that (Tortoise) used when they raised the money was 'We're looking for an energy transition company.' There's a slight nuance between being just green and being transitioned," he said. "Energy transition is about how large factories and how the economy can electrify and get cleaner. It's a little bit more than just clean energy. "It's also about how do you get factories to have more electric systems; what happens as electric semis start coming out in the market, what happens as cars start switching more to electric and so you see more and more things going to electricity and that electricity becoming cleaner and cleaner over time," Kent said. "What is the new power grid of the future (going to) look like."