• Pathfinder Capital has closed ove 20 renewable energy transactions over the past three years.
  • Follow noted energy industry authority Harry Chernoff's latest reviews under "News".

Profile

Pathfinder Capital Advisors, LLC is a closely-held boutique investment bank and advisory group founded in 2001 that focuses on energy and power transactions.

Pathfinder Renewables (an affiliate) is specifically responsible for capital raising (including "tax-equity") in the renewable and clean energy sectors (for wind, solar, geothermal and biomass fuels projects).

In addition to the above companies, Sojourner Securities is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pathfinder Capital and is a FINRA/SEC-registered broker/dealer.

Mr. Friddle and Mr. Gebhardt established the Pathfinder group of companies following 20+ years (each) of experience in the corporate and investment banking industry. Prior employment included senior level and management positions with Banc of America Securities, J.P. Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Wachovia (First Union), and UBS.

At Pathfinder we engage in transactions where our combined and specialized expertise creates value for clients well above that provided by other advisory alternatives. Our firm is comprised of highly experienced professionals with specialized product expertise and extensive relationships throughout the lender and investor communities. Our professionals focus exclusively on delivering optimal private capital alternatives to our clients. We maintain regular dialogues with a large universe of financing sources, including diversified financial institutions, well-known companies in the oil and gas, consumer products, transportation, healthcare, and industrial sectors (among others) as well as finance companies, hedge funds, institutional fund managers, mezzanine funds, and other alternative sources of capital. We remain in continuous and close contact to the capital markets and our knowledge of trends and issues allows us to provide realistic and up-to-date advice to clients.

Our backgrounds encompass more than three decades of relevant securities, investor, asset-backed, energy tax credit, tax, legal and transactional experience in the energy, power and renewables sectors. As a result, and since Pathfinder Capital was founded, we have raised more than $12.0 billion in capital for clients from a variety of sources. Many of these capital providers had not invested in the energy sector until we brought our expertise to the transaction identification, diligence and review process. We have a well-earned reputation for an ability to successfully deliver innovative structures and capital solutions that match the individual needs of each client. In addition, we believe that this expertise must be delivered on an undiluted basis - meaning that clients interact exclusively with our principals.

Just a few of the critical areas of knowledge and significant areas of experience covered by our professionals include:

  • merger, acquisition and corporate finance advisory solutions;
  • federal tax credits for energy projects (usage, purchase structures);
  • partnership structures for investment purposes;
  • securities issued by Special Purpose Entities (SPEs);
  • the accounting standards and practices for utilities, including standards for prudence and cost recoverability, reserve accounting, depreciation, and taxation;
  • rating agency interaction;
  • capital raising issues for energy projects, including wind and solar projects by and on behalf of non-energy investors, and tax and accounting issues;
  • capital raising issues in the regulated utility environment and interaction with and testimony for public utility commissions; and
  • other investor issues, including physical asset risks and operational risks regarding energy and renewables investments.

Renewable Energy

Pathfinder Renewables develops assignments in the dynamic and growing renewable and clean energy sectors. The firm advises on and raises capital on behalf of select project developers and sponsors and works with investors looking to enter or further existing investment in the renewables space. The Pathfinder group specializes in sourcing capital from "non-traditional" sources for its clients and this expertise is carried over to Pathfinder Renewables. Projects completed or under engagement include opportunities in the wind, solar, biomass, geothermal and refined coal sectors.

Our principals are investment bankers and legal professionals well-grounded in the energy & power sector with strong tax backgrounds. The only transactions we undertake are energy and energy-related assignments. We are energy bankers first and potential investors clearly know the difference.

We have substantial backgrounds advising clients on capital raising- including "tax equity", monetization strategies, company valuation, debt issuance, asset-backed transactions, hybrid security issuance, and similar complex structured financings to achieve specific balance sheet and income statement results. This experience was developed from multiple sides of the market as securities products specialists, client managers and legal/tax professionals with major firms.

Over the course of our careers, we have executed numerous transactions with a large number of corporate and institutional names. Regardless of our affiliated corporate identity, many of those same companies still look to us as individuals for well-structured and appropriately-priced transactions.

Our investor reach is leveraged for our clients' benefit and we expect to remain creatively involved in all aspects of the transaction process from structuring to diligence to documents/deal negotiation.

News

Team

Contact

Pathfinder Capital Advisors, LLC
223 East Blvd
Suite 300
Charlotte, NC 28203

Email contact.

Telephone (main): (704) 469-5628
Fax: (704) 675-7958

© 2001-2016    |    Tel: (704) 469-5628    |    Fax: (704) 675-7958    |    Email    |    Terms & Conditions

Sojourner Securities, LLC, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pathfinder Capital Advisors and a registered broker/dealer.
Sojourner Securities is registered with the SEC and is a member of FINRA and SIPC.

Pathfinder Research provides buy-side research primarily geared towards the hedge fund industry. We do not generally publish our detailed research nor make public our research although we may occasionally publish/post topical research of a more general nature and in support of the theses we develop to guide our sector analyses. Further, commentary from Pathfinder principals is sought by leading investment and industry publications and links to these articles may be found under the "News" link in the above menu.

We concentrate our research on opportunities in the broadly defined electric power and oil & gas industries. In the electric power industry, opportunities include traditional vertically integrated electric utilities, regulated transmission & distribution, merchant generation, nuclear power, coal & coal-based technologies (e.g., synfuels), energy efficiency & conservation, and alternative energy. In the oil & gas industry, we seek opportunities based on exploration & production, refining & marketing, and macro-economic supply / demand analyses.

Pathfinder Research develops trading and hedge opportunities based on information that is often overlooked, misinterpreted, or not adequately followed by other analysts, particularly in regards to smaller companies, companies with little or no institutional following, and companies in distress. By comparison we will spend less time on the widely-followed large-cap energy companies except for distressed security opportunities or unless we develop or interpret new information that may lead to us to a conclusion divergent from the consensus view. In other words, Pathfinder Research operates in a niche where the larger institutions and analysts have no interest or financial incentive to operate.

We do not hesitate to identify, quantify, and comment on overvalued securities and securities that trade with an elevated (and usually underestimated) risk of becoming distressed. Our equal willingness to be positive or negative on a security or company, as the objective analysis dictates, distinguishes Pathfinder Research from a large segment of the advisory business.

Our analysts often focus on the market interpretation of events within the broadly defined perspective of behavioral finance. As a Firm, we do not accept the deus ex machina interpretation of efficient markets and rational expectations and have found (over and over) in our niche that expectations are not rational and that efficiency does not instantaneously and unerringly appear out of nowhere. True trading opportunities require critical analysis employing the correct approaches and correct actions to create efficiency and revise expectations. This is what we do. This is how we excel. And this is why our clients seek our advice.