HASI: Is There a Greater Fool? (HASI US)
Hannon Armstrong has still failed to publicly acknowledge – or deny – that in 2021, it booked ~$300 million of non-cash income that will never be collected. (This income, which HASI could have chosen to neutralize, largely arises from tax benefits that others claim, and is a quirk of the esoteric partnership accounting used for many renewables projects.) If we are correct, in 2021, HASI effectively lost about -$200 million. (HASI reported positive 2021 income of $127 million.) Regardless, some investors might be tempted to ignore HASI’s lack of forthrightness because of the promise of significant cash flows from EMI projects over the long-term. But is this optimism justified?
A former HASI executive thinks not:
“They [bankers] walk around the Street… they’re looking for some sucker to take paper on a non-controlling passive basis. I mean, you look around the room, who are you going to call? It’s not like Annapolis [HASI’s headquarters] is a destination location for money-raising. So, I just felt like that was marginal and these are widely shopped deals that other more informed investors wouldn’t take because of the low yields.”
To be more specific, in this report we summarize our findings on three additional HASI projects: Jupiter (HASI’s largest by assets), Rosie, and Vivint Solar 3. These findings further show that HASI makes highly questionable investments on behalf of its investors.
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