Shareholder vote clears the way for Brookfield acquisition of TerraForm Power

It’s been a long romance. Nearly nine months after Brookfield announced its bid to buy TerraForm Power, the final approvals have been secured that will allow the Canadian asset manager to formally acquire the pioneering solar yieldco on October 16.

To be fair, there’s been a lot that needed to happen along the way. In addition to the standard regulatory approvals, TerraForm had to clear up legal and operational entanglements with former sponsor SunEdison, which was threatening to drag both TerraForm power and fellow yieldco TerraForm Global into its legal and financial maelstrom. It took until June to obtain court approval of a March settlement between the two companies and SunEdison.

The final hurdle was crossed late Friday when TerraForm shareholders voted to approve Brookfield’s optional buy-out of shares for $9.52 per share, with a dividend of $1.94 per share for all stockholders to be paid immediately prior to the deal.

As a result, Brookfield will not only become the majority owner but also the sponsor of TerraForm Power. The yieldco currently owns 2.6 GW of solar and wind assets, most of which are in the United States.

And while the shareholder vote clears the way for Brookfield to own TerraForm, this is not the end of SunEdison’t financial interest. At the end of the transaction SunEdison will still own 37% of TerraForm’s issued and outstanding stock.

TerraForm Global is preparing for a similar vote of stockholders; however a regulatory filing on September 11 related to the shareholders meeting has information on the date and time of the meeting omitted.