Solv Energy raised US$512.5m late Tuesday from an all-primary Nasdaq IPO as investors flock to opportunities tied to US onshoring and AI-related infrastructure investments.
Jefferies and JP Morgan, as joint-lead bookrunners, priced a full-sized offering of 20.5m shares at US$25, the top of the US$22–$25 marketing range. Despite a book of demand that was more than 10-times oversubscribed, the banks placed 70% of the offering with just 25 institutions, a banker on the deal said.
Shares of Solv, which trades under the ticker "MWH" for megawatt-hour, soared 20.6% on debut Wednesday to US$30.16.
Backed by US private equity firm American Securities and formed through a series of acquisitions, Solv has built more than 500 power plants. That includes 146 that it manages on behalf of investors under long-term contracts.
Founded in 2008 as a unit of Swinerton Renewable Energy, Solv was acquired by American Securities in 2021. American Securities’ stake in Solv will be diluted to 74% assuming full exercise of the shoe.
In marketing the offering, Solv said it expects to generate US$335m–$346m of adjusted Ebitda in 2025 and that revenue grew by about 33% to US$2.47bn–$2.5bn.
The company, which sold a 10% stake of itself on the IPO, captured an enterprise value of US$4.9bn, valuing it at a 14.4x multiple of 2025 Ebitda. That compares to the 33x trailing multiple at which the much larger Quanta Services currently trades, following a 20%-plus run-up in its shares so far in 2026, according to LSEG data.
“Hyperscaler capex is set to increase by 400% (US$612bn) from 2023–2027, and utility capex up over 150% in the same timeframe,” analysts at Bank of America outlined in a note to clients about Quanta in January.
Solv is using the proceeds to fully repay US$402.2m of bank loans it took out to fund acquisitions. It pays about 12.1% annually on those loans.
Solv benefited from comparisons to Forgent Power Solutions, a maker of electrical equipment for AI data centers, utilities and other infrastructure. Forgent shares have surged 22.4% since it priced its US$1.5bn NYSE IPO late last month.