Citicore Renewable kicks off 2024 IPO season with P12.9-B offer

MANILA  -Tycoon Edgar Saavedra’s Citicore Renewable Energy Corp., the country’s second-largest solar power producer, is kicking off the 2024 initial public offering (IPO) season with a P12.9-billion debut share sale in March.

The company is aiming to sell about 2.9 billion shares at up to P3.88 each from March 4-8 next year, with proceeds to be used for solar capacity expansion and battery energy storage systems (BESS), the company said in a preliminary deal prospectus.

Another 435 million shares will be sold by Saavedra’s Citicore Power for post-IPO price stabilization activities. The Philippine Stock Exchange listing date is March 15, 2024.

Citicore Renewable, which began operations in 2015, is selling as much as 33.2 percent of its shares to outside investors. It will be Saavedra’s third IPO after Megawide Construction Corp. and Citicore Energy REIT Corp.

READ: Citicore Renewable Energy readies ‘blockbuster’ IPO

At the target IPO price, Citicore Renewable will be valued at nearly P39 billion upon listing. The pricing will be finalized on Feb. 28, 2024, the prospectus showed.

The company ended Sept. 2023 with total installed capacity of 285.1 Megawatts across Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. This is the country’s second-biggest solar portfolio after the Ayala Group’s ACEN Corp.

Citicore Renewable has another 6,446-MW pipeline of solar projects and 812.5-MW in onshore wind power projects in various stages of development, the prospectus showed.

“In the short term, from 2024 to 2025, we expect to commission approximately 2.3GW of gross solar installed capacity, with various projects having in the ready-to-build/under construction stage as of September 30, 2023,” the company said in the filing.

READ: Citicore Group inks 700-MW solar module supply deal

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“In the medium term, from 2026 to 2028, we intend to develop approximately 5GW of gross installed capacity comprising solar, run- of-river hydro and onshore wind,” it added.

Long-term plans from 2029 and onwards include adding about 3.1GW of gross installed capacity through offshore wind energy projects, Citicore Renewable said.

The company said it has seven offshore wind service contracts, although there is no formal regulatory framework for offshore wind to date.

UBS AG (Singapore) was tapped as sole global coordinator and the joint bookrunner with BDO Capital & Investments Corp. BDO Capital is also the domestic lead manager for the IPO.

READ: New assets boost Citicore REIT income

Citicore Renewable aims to raise P10.76 billion in net proceeds, with 85 percent to be used for its solar capacity expansion until 2025. The remaining P1.6 billion will be used to expand its BESS portfolio, the prospectus showed.

Citicore Renewable revenue rose 30 percent to P2.62 billion during the first nine months of 2023 while net income hit P323 million, down from P458.8 million during the same period in 2022.