SolarCity Names Finance Chief, in Solar Funds Venture

SolarCity Corp. named a new chief financial officer and said it was teaming up with Citi on a program to finance more than $347 million in solar projects in the U.S.

The San Mateo, Calif. company promoted global capital markets executive Radford Small to finance chief. Mr. Small joined SolarCity last year from Goldman Sachs Group Inc., where he headed the investment bank's clean technology and renewables group.

At SolarCity, Mr. Small initially was responsible for financial business development and investor relations, with the role expanding to include all of the company's capital markets activity.

SolarCity and Citi plan to form two funds, including one to fund $284 million of residential projects nationwide and another fund to finance $63 million of projects for small and midsize businesses in California.

The new funds follow a $305 million cash equity financing SolarCity closed earlier this month.

The moves come as the cash-strapped company has been striving to survive as a stand-alone company until its planned merger with Tesla Motors Inc. In addition to reining in costs, SolarCity has begun selling more solar panels to homeowners, rather than, as it has done traditionally, leasing the panels and retaining ownership.

For Citi, the program is part of the bank's broader effort to "lend, invest and facilitate a total of $100 billion within the next 10 years to activities that reduce the impacts of climate change," said Marshal Salant, Citi head of alternative energy finance.

SolarCity said President Tanguy Serra, who previously oversaw finance as part of his responsibilities, will leave the company at year's end after the Tesla deal is expected to close.

The merger of SolarCity and Tesla would create a unique combination of solar, power storage and transportation, which Tesla says would be the world's only integrated sustainable energy company. Elon Musk is the chairman of both companies, as well as their biggest shareholder.

Write to Tess Stynes at tess.stynes@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 28, 2016 11:15 ET (15:15 GMT)

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