Leandro Leviste’s Solar Philippines Nueva Ecija Corp. (SPNEC) is downsizing its rights offering by 15 percent after the shares were priced at P1.50 each or bottom of an indicative range.
From P3.3 billion, the company is planning to raise P2.8 billion from the exercise, which will be offered to existing investors.
According to the deal prospectus, the offer period will run from Aug. 30 to Sept. 5 this year.
Solar Philippines is targeting to list the shares on Sept. 15.
Stockholders can avail of one rights share for every 1.28 shares held as of the record date on Aug. 25, according to the offer terms.
The company is raising money for new projects, including securing land and off-take agreements.
These include the 3.5-gigawatt solar and the 4.5-GW battery Terra Solar project.
Solar Philippines has a stated goal of expanding its solar power capacity to 10 GW by 2025.
The company’s shares sank 3.89 percent to P1.73 each on Thursday.
Last December, the company raised P2.7 billion from its initial public offering, which was priced at P1 per share.
Earlier this week, SPNEC announced it is working on what would be the world’s largest solar farm.
Property acquired
In a disclosure, SPNEC said it plans to secure at least 2,500 hectares in Nueva Ecija and Bulacan to undertake solar farms with an aggregate capacity of 4 GW.
It already secured land for its 500-megawatt solar project, “for which the first 50 MW and the transmission for the full 500 MW are under construction.”
SPNEC is earmarking proceeds from its various fundraising activities to acquire lands in the aforementioned provinces, which was made possible as parent firm Solar Philippines has been consolidating land and permits for this project since 2016 when it applied with the Department of Energy for its first solar energy service contract in the area.
“This clustering of projects in the same area also supports the development of transmission, which would extend over 60 kilometers to connect to NGCP’s (National Grid Corp. of the Philippines) substations that supply the Greater Manila Area,” it added.
Record breaker
Once completed, the combined developments would surpass India’s Bhadla Solar Farm, currently the world’s largest solar farm with a capacity of more than 2.2 GW and the capacity of the total grid-connected solar operating in the Philippines at over 1.3 GW as of end-2021.
“Over the years, others did not believe these ranchlands far from the grid could be the site for a solar farm. By the end of this year, our planned share issuances should result in the consolidation of ingredients that would enable SPNEC to expand its flagship project to be the world’s largest solar farm,” said Leviste, who is the firm’s founder.
SPNEC earlier said it is optimistic about completing the planned stock rights offering slated for late August, enabling them to raise as much as P3.3 billion from this transaction. This would pave the way for the completion of its asset-for-share swap with Solar Philippines.
It recently disclosed ongoing discussions with investors for private placements to complete its share issuances planned in light of its asset-for-share swap, which involves the issuance of 24.4 billion shares at P2.50 apiece, in exchange for the shares of Solar Philippines in a portfolio of projects.
“We aim to complete the private placements to increase the public float for the share swap by the end of 2022,” Leviste said earlier.