Solar Philippines unit begins offer period for P2.7-B IPO

Solar Philippines’ wholly-owned unit, Solar Philippines Nueva Ecija Corp. (SPNEC), is moving forward with its plan to raise P2.7 billion by offering its shares to the investing public.

In a statement on Wednesday, Solar Philippines said the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued a permit to sell to SPNEC.

This paves the way for the offer period to run from December 1 to 7, 2021, with a tentative listing date on the Main Board of the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) on December 17, 2021, based on a notice published on the PSE EDGE website, according to the Leviste-led firm.

The latest development came after SPNEC priced its initial public offering (IPO) price at P1 apiece after its secured approval from both the SEC and the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) to conduct an IPO.

In particular, SPNEC is offering 2.7 billion shares sizing the IPO at the maximum of its indicative range at P2.7 billion.

Proceeds of the IPO will be utilized by SPNEC for construction and development of its 50-megawatt solar project dubbed as Phase 1A, transmission line construction, lease for 2022, and general corporate purposes.

Capital raised from the offer will also be used to acquire land to expand the project beyond 500 MW, in support of SPNEC’s plan to develop the largest solar project in Southeast Asia.

Solar Philippines said that this is the first time that a company has been approved to list under the Supplemental Listing and Disclosure Requirements for Renewable Energy (RE) Companies approved by the Philippine Stock Exchange in 2011.

PSE rules allow development-stage project companies to list, subject to certain requirements including having a valid and subsisting service contract awarded by the Department of Energy (DOE).

“We thank the PSE and SEC for approving this IPO, which aims to give the public a new option to invest in RE and increase the RE capacity of the Philippines. Furthermore, we are thankful for this opportunity to launch the Solar Philippines group’s first public offering, which we see as a favorable signal for future offerings,” said Solar Philippines founder Leandro Leviste.

For his part, PSE president and CEO Ramon Monzon said, “I am pleased that PSE can support a renewable energy (RE) company with its fund raising requirements. The need for RE is more amplified now as more companies are turning to RE as part of their climate action program."

Solar Philippines incorporated SPNEC in 2016, and secured a DOE service contract to develop the Nueva Ecija project in 2017.

SPNEC plans to start construction of the project before the end of 2021.

Once operational, the project is intended to supplement the Luzon grid’s thin reserves and help prevent the rotating outages that affected millions of Filipinos earlier this year, it said.

Solar Philippines' other projects include one in Batangas with an operational 63 MW in partnership with Korea Electric Power Corporation; one in Tarlac, being expanded to up to 200 MW in partnership with Prime Infra of the Razon Group; and another two in Batangas and Cavite with a combined capacity of 140 MW planned to be fully operational by 2022.

SPNEC has engaged Abacus Capital and Investment Corp. as issue manager and lead underwriter and Investment Capital Corp. of the Philippines as participating underwriter for this IPO. —VBL, GMA News