Energy services group Hometree lands £50m from Canadian giant CPPIB

A residential energy services provider backed by leading City investors has secured a £50m funding boost from one of the world’s biggest pension funds.

Sky News understands that Hometree, which counts Legal & General (L&G) among its investors, will this week announce that it has agreed a mezzanine debt facility with a subsidiary of Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB).

The new debt facility will add to a £250m loan from Barclays that Hometree secured earlier this year, and will be used to finance up to 35,000 residential solar panel systems, batteries and heat pumps.

News of Hometree’s expanded financing capacity comes as a fresh rise in the household energy price cap takes effect.

Average annual energy bills will increase by £149 following the revision to the cap.

“We’re delighted that CPP Investments has joined us in our mission to help homeowners decarbonise their homes by installing solar panels and heat pumps,” said Rory Duff, managing director of Hometree Finance,

“The energy transition will not happen without appropriate finance since very few people have the thousands of pounds needed for the upfront costs.”

Hometree, which was launched in 2016 by Simon Phelan, has set a target of decarbonising more than 1m homes by the end of the decade.

It has said it wants to build Europe’s leading residential energy services business, combining hardware installation, financing, repairs and ongoing maintenance.

The company has raised tens of millions of pounds in equity from investors including L&G, 2150 and Energy Impact Partners.