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Total to sell 50% of US solar portfolio for $950 million

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Bought 49% of upstream US gas assets for undisclosed sum

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CEO under pressure to lower 18% net debt-to-equity ratio

with

divestments

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Company last week announced trimmed buybacks to cut

spending

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By America Hernandez

Sept 29 (Reuters) - TotalEnergies will raise

$950 million from the sale of a stake in a U.S. solar portfolio,

it said, as the company seeks to soothe investor fears over slow

asset sales and rising debt that are likely to be in focus at an

Investor Day in New York on Monday.

As other energy majors reduce renewables spending, Total has

bucked the trend by continuing to build wind and solar projects,

then selling minority stakes to raise cash that it invests in

natural gas assets to grow its portfolio as global demand rises.

Under the solar deal, investment company KKR will

take 50% of six utility-scale solar assets and 41 distributed

generation assets, mostly in the United States. Total will keep

the remaining half of the 1.4-gigawatt portfolio, with an

enterprise value of $1.25 billion.

DEBT HAS MORE THAN DOUBLED

CEO Patrick Pouyanne has said the sale is one of several meant

to bring in $3.5 billion by year-end, to offset more than $3

billion in acquisitions that have contributed to a more than

doubling of Total's debt in the first six months of 2025.

The French major also announced on Monday it would purchase a

49% stake in Continental Resources' upstream gas fields in the

U.S. state of Oklahoma, for an undisclosed sum.

STRUGGLING ASSET SALES

Last week TotalEnergies sold an oilfield stake to Shell for $510

million, but two other deals are in jeopardy.

An $860 million divestment of Nigerian oil assets fell through

last week as buyer Chappal Energies failed to raise enough

money.

In July, the sale of Total's West of Shetland gas assets in

Britain for an undisclosed sum also fell apart, after would-be

buyer Prax Group went bankrupt.

Total's gearing - a measure of net debt to equity - has leapt to

18% from about 8% in the first six months of this year. That

figure rises to 28% when including $8.9 billion in leases and

9.75 billion euros ($11.37 billion) of hybrid debt. Quarterly

earnings hit a four-year-low this summer.

Last week the board of directors announced a 25% cut to its

buyback in the fourth quarter, with potentially deeper cuts next

year, citing the need to lower debt levels in case oil prices

fall further.

Brent crude is trading below $70 per barrel, a 40%

drop since 2022 when Total initiated its $8 billion annual

buyback scheme.