Solar Philippines said Tuesday it is preparing for the initial public offering of wholly-owned subsidiary Solar Philippines Nueva Ecija Corp., the developer of the 500-megawatt solar project in Peñaranda, Nueva Ecija, to raise some P1.3 billion to fund construction.
“We’ve decided to make Solar Philippines Nueva Ecija Corp. our group’s first venture into the public markets because this is the asset that we are proudest to showcase—a site where will rise the largest solar project in the Philippines, with potential for further expansion given its proximity to Manila,” said Solar Philippines founder Leandro Leviste in a statement.
The IPO proceeds will serve as the equity for the construction of the project’s first 225 MW, which would be larger than any solar project operating in the Philippines today. The first 225 MW has a cost of about P5 billion, while the entire 500-MW project is estimated to require financing of P11 billion.
“We aim to raise P1.3 billion to fund the equity for the construction of the project’s first 225 MW, with the possibility of raising more to advance the expansion of the project,” Leviste said.
SPNEC is 99.99-percent owned by Solar Philippines Power Project Holdings Inc. while the remaining 0.01 percent is owned by the directors, officers and affiliates.
The company is expecting public ownership to be at a minimum 20 percent post-IPO, according to the SPNEC website.
Solar Philippines would look for other financing to complete the 500 MW, which would be larger than any solar project operating in Southeast Asia today. It has roughly 488 hectares, more than the requirement for the 500-MW project.
The company aims to expand the project beyond this capacity amid the country’s growing demand for renewable energy.
The company aims to list under the supplemental listing and disclosure requirements for renewable energy companies approved by the Philippine Stock Exchange in 2011.
Solar Philippines said this would 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.
“The PSE showed great foresight in creating this program for RE companies. Through this offering, we hope to give the public a new option to invest in RE, and expand RE in the Philippines,” Leviste said.
SPNEC was incorporated in 2017 and began securing land and permits for its project. The company plans to start construction of the project before the end of 2021.
Once operational, the project is intended to supplement Luzon grid’s thin reserves and help prevent the rotating outages that affected millions of Filipinos earlier this year. Upon the project’s completion, Nueva Ecija would host the largest of five utility-scale Solar Philippines projects planned to be operational by 2022.
The other projects of Solar Philippines include one in Batangas with an operational 63 MW in partnership with Korea Electric Power Corp.; one in Tarlac, which is being expanded up to 200 MW in partnership with Prime Infra of the Razon Group; and two in Batangas and Cavite with a combined capacity of 140 MW which would be fully operational by 2022.
Along with the expansions of these projects and the company’s rooftop solar portfolio, these projects would comprise the company’s first 1,000 MW, half of which would be in SPNEC.
