CTR Plans $245 Million Debt Conversion Ahead of Hell’s Kitchen Project Financing

Controlled Thermal Resources has reached agreements intended to convert approximately $245 million of expected convertible debt into equity-linked capital when its proposed combination with Plum Acquisition Corp. IV closes. The restructuring is designed to clear a major balance-sheet hurdle before CTR seeks the additional project financing needed to build the first stage of its Hell’s Kitchen geothermal power and critical-minerals development in California’s Imperial Valley.

Under the announced structure, about $205 million of convertible notes is expected to convert directly into equity at closing. A further approximately $40 million is expected to convert into a newly planned private investment in public equity, or PIPE. These are conditional transactions rather than completed conversions: they depend on the business combination closing and on the associated approvals and financing arrangements.

CTR and Plum IV expect the proposed combination to close in the fourth quarter of 2026, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals and other customary conditions. If completed, the combined company is expected to retain the Controlled Thermal Resources name and seek a Nasdaq listing under the ticker CTRH. The parties have not presented the latest debt agreements as final project financing for construction.

The commercial logic is to reduce leverage before CTR approaches lenders and new equity investors for Stage 1. The company says a simpler capital structure should improve its credit profile and give it more flexibility to raise capital. That distinction matters: converting existing notes changes who bears the financing risk, but it does not by itself supply all of the cash required to construct and commission the project.

Hell’s Kitchen is planned as an integrated geothermal-power and mineral-recovery complex using hot brine from the Salton Sea geothermal field. CTR’s first construction sequence centers on a 50-megawatt geothermal plant. The wells, brine flow and shared infrastructure created for that plant are intended to support a subsequent lithium facility with planned annual production capacity of 25,000 metric tons of battery-grade material.

The company is targeting commercial operation of Stage 1 Power in 2028 and Stage 1 Lithium in 2030. Those dates remain company targets rather than guaranteed delivery schedules. CTR says approximately $310 million has already been invested in development, permitting, production wells and long-lead equipment, while engineering and financing work continues.

At full planned scale, CTR describes a development of approximately 650 megawatts of renewable baseload generation across roughly 4,000 acres. The site is also being positioned for grid sales and possible co-location of data centers and advanced manufacturing. Lithium and other critical minerals would create additional revenue streams, but each later stage will still depend on technical execution, capital availability, market conditions and permits.

For investors and industrial buyers, the October agreements are best understood as a financing-enablement step. They could remove a large block of convertible debt and make the project easier to finance, while transferring more exposure to equity and PIPE investors. The next decisive milestones are completion of the business combination, confirmation of the PIPE, and a fully funded construction package for Stage 1.