UK fund buys into CREC, invests $12.5M

CREC STOCK MARKET DEBUT (from left): UK Embassy’s Foreign Commonwealth Development Office Climate and Economic Counselor Lloyd Cameron, CREC Director and Chief Investor Relations Officer Abigail Joan R. Cosico, CREC Director Manuel Louie B. Ferrer, CREC President and CEO Oliver Y. Tan, CREC Chairman Edgar B. Saavedra, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairperson Emilio B. Aquino, PSE President and CEO Ramon S. Monzon, PSE COO Atty. Roel A. Refran, PSE corporate secretary Atty. Aissa V. Encarnacion, PSE Issuer Regulation Division Head Atty. Marigel B. Baniqued-Garcia, and PSE General Counsel Atty. Veronica V. del Rosario.

MANILA, Philippines — Edgar Saavedra-led Citicore Renewable Energy Corp. (CREC), the second company to brave the stock market this year, has garnered support from international investors for its initial public offering (IPO) via a $12.5-million investment from the UK government’s Mobilist Programme.

Despite a positive opening on Friday, the renewable energy firm closed unchanged at P2.70. It opened at P2.75, or 1.85 percent higher than its IPO price.

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CREC president Oliver Tan told reporters that Mobilist’s investment covered a “significant portion” of his company’s P5.3-billion IPO.

“We are very honored because this is their first investment [in the Philippines] … It’s a special fund by the UK government that is looking to deploy meaningful investment that will have a significant impact to the UN SDGs (sustainable development goals),” Tan said during a press conference following the listing ceremony.

Green transition

The Mobilist program is an initiative by the British Investment Partnership that aims to support infrastructure development and green transition in Southeast Asia.

CREC, which is also the third company under the Megawide Group to go public after Megawide Construction Corp. (2011) and Citicore REIT Corp. (2022), offered 1.79 billion common shares at P2.70 each. It also fully exercised an overallotment option of 178.57 million shares.

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A total of 70 percent of the offered shares were allotted to local and international institutional investors, while the remaining 30 percent were offered to eligible trading participants on the local bourse and to small retail investors, according to the company.

CREC’s shares listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) totaled 8.92 billion common shares, with the IPO representing 22 percent of the company’s total outstanding shares.

“We are very pleased with the result of our IPO. And based on our monitoring of how the share price is performing … we are happy, in spite of difficult market conditions,” Tan said.

According to PSE president Ramon Monzon, the Megawide Group has so far raised more than P30.5 billion in capital from its three IPOs.

Proceeds raised from CREC’s share sale will be used to develop its pipeline of solar power plants across the country, Monzon said.

Currently, CREC has 285.1 megawatts (MW) of solar, hydro, and wind projects in its portfolio. The company aims to grow this by 5,000 MW in the next five years, mostly through solar projects, to eventually become one of the country’s largest power generators.