20th Mar 2019 11:15
LONDON (Alliance News) - Greencoat Renewables PLC on Wednesday said it has raised EUR147.7 million to pay down its existing revolving credit facility and free up capital for acquisitions.
Greencoat Renewables issued 140 million shares at EUR1.055 per share to raise the funds. This is part of the Irish renewable infrastructure company's plan to issue up to 250 million shares under its issuance programme, which has multiple tranches AND was launched in July 2018.
Shares in Greencoat Renewables were down 0.5% at EUR1.07 per share on Wednesday.
Initially, Greencoat Renewables had planned to issue around 100 million shares, but said this was "upsized to maximum remaining capacity" under the issuance programme as a result of "substantial excess demand".
All 250 million programme shares have now been issued, with its shares in issue now standing at 520 million.
The money will be used to pay down Greencoat Renewables' loans and so that it can continue "to take advantage of further value accretive acquisition opportunities in Ireland".
At present, the company is potentially looking to acquire an undisclosed "high-quality operating asset" that has a EUR76 million headline enterprise value. The deal is due to close at the end of March.
Greencoat Renewables is also involved in "a number of attractive processes" for acquisitions totalling over 250 megawatts in aggregate capacity.
Chair Ronan Murphy said: "We are delighted with the response from both existing and new shareholders to the placing. Due to demand substantially in excess of 100 million shares, we have agreed to upsize the placing to 140 million shares and conclude the share issuance programme launched in July 2018.
"The net proceeds of the placing will enable us to execute further value accretive acquisitions in our pipeline in Ireland where we continue to see an exciting aggregation opportunity in the secondary wind market."
Murphy subscribed for 23,696 shares in the placing, taking his stake to 148,448 shares and Bertrand Gautier, a partner of Renewables' investment manager, subscribed for 18,957 and now holds 68,957 shares in total.
Non-Executive Director Kevin McNamara subscribed for 9,478 shares which brings his stake to 59,478 shares and fellow Non-Executive Director Emer Gilvarry subscribed for the same number of shares which raises her stake to 58,983 shares.
Related Shares:
Greencoat Renewables