Read this in The Manila Times digital edition.
ACEN Corp. is planning to raise up to P30 billion in fresh capital via a stock rights offering (SRO) to fund various renewable energy (RE) projects and pay off some debts.
The Ayala Group's listed RE platform said its board of directors on Wednesday approved "the offering of primary common shares by way of a stock rights offer to eligible stockholders of record and the subsequent listing of the said shares" under certain terms.
The target issue size is up to P30 billion worth of common shares, with a minimum indicative pricing of P2.30 per share. The shares to be issued will be taken from its current unissued common shares and an increase in its authorized capital stock.
"As I mentioned earlier, our increase in our authorized capital stock was to allow fresh equity raising either in the form of [an] SRO or private placement, right? Or a follow-on offering. But in the end, the board of directors has decided to do a planned stock rights offering," ACEN President and CEO Eric Francia told a media briefing.
"The proceeds will be used to mostly support our further expansion of renewable projects. And then for flexibility, of course, we also put down some use of proceeds to help pay [off] debt as well," he added.
ACEN Chief Financial Officer Jonathan Back said that they expected to get the SRO done by September.
He added that AC Energy and Infrastructure Corp. and Arran Investment Pte. Ltd., ACEN Corp.'s principal shareholders, had both indicated their support for the SRO and plan to subscribe to their pro rata shares, subject to the finalization of terms.
ACEN said it would be focusing its growth efforts on four main markets — the Philippines, Australia, India, and Vietnam/Laos — by continually seeking opportunities to build projects in these markets. Four projects in these locations are expected to come online this year.
"We are expecting four projects to come online this year. These are the Monsoon Wind project in Laos; the Stockyard Wind project in the US, which actually just came online; an India project together with BrightNight; and in Australia, the Stubbo Solar Farm," ACEN Group Chief Investment Officer Patrice Clausse said.
"[W]e are not actively looking at any new countries at the moment [as] we are already in four sizeable markets, and we will focus our efforts there," he added.
ACEN shares slid by 7.86 percent to close at P2.58 each on Wednesday amid a 0.37-percent rise for the benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index.