CITICORE Renewable Energy Corp. (CREC) debuted on the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) on Friday, having raised more than P5 billion from an initial public offering amid a warm reception from local and international investors.
"CREC completed its offering of 1,785,715,000 common shares, with a 10 percent overallotment option of up to 178,572,000 secondary common shares, at a price of P2.70 per share," the RE firm, member of the Saavedra-led Megawide group, said in a disclosure.
The offering represented 22 percent of CREC's total outstanding shares, with a market capitalization of P24.1 billion at the time of listing.
Proceeds are intended to fund CREC's RE portfolio expansion toward its goal of contributing around 5 gigawatts (GW) to the country's renewable power supply by 2028.
The IPO marked CREC's biggest capital-raising activity following its 2023 mezzanine loan with Pentagreen Capital, this year's financing arrangement with RCBC and sale of CREIT shares to SM Investments Corp.
It was also the third public listing of the Megawide group, following Megawide Construction Corp. and Citicore Energy REIT Corp.
In a press conference after the IPO, CREC Chairman Edgar Saavedra said that solar energy was "one of the technologies that can be built the fastest. It is also one of the cheapest in terms of tariff."
"The world has changed significantly over the past few years, making solar a viable and essential component of the energy mix," he added.
CREC President and Chief Executive Officer Oliver Tan, meanwhile, said: "We have consistently leveraged our engineering DNA to enter into infrastructure development, and now we are applying that expertise to renewable energy."
UK Ambassador to the Philippines Laure Baufils applauded CREC's successful IPO, as his government, through its Mobilist program, had invested $12.5 million in the company.
"Our $12.5 million investment in CREC will help catalyze investments towards an approximately 1 GW of additional solar energy capacity per year over the next five years in the country, making clean, reliable and affordable energy a reality for people in the Philippines," Baufils said.
CREC shares opened at P2.75 but closed at its offer price of P2.70 each amid a 0.14 percent uptick for the PSE index.
Read The Rest at :
