Strong demand sees TRIG beef up placing

The Renewables Infrastructure Group (TRIG), the UK listed renewable energy investment firm, has announced a further placing in the face of strong investor demand to raise a maximum of £102.25 million (€140.48 million; $152.04 million) in gross proceeds.

The firm’s placing and 2014/15 offer had initially comprised a maximum of 67.5 million new ordinary shares, for which demand – according to a statement from the firm – was “significantly exceeded”.

This has resulted in the firm deciding to make a further 32.5 million new ordinary shares available under a further placing with an issue price of 102.5 pence per share. The aggregate placing of 100 million new shares will raise £102.25 million in gross proceeds if it is fully subscribed.

The statement said that proceeds from the issue and further placing will be used to fully repay its revolving acquisition facility, from which around £69 million has been drawn, and provide additional capital for the pipeline of investment opportunities that TRIG is currently considering.

The new ordinary shares will rank pari passu with the existing ordinary shares and include the right to receive the target dividend of 3.08 pence per ordinary share for the six months ending 30 June 2015.

Established in May 2013 to provide investors with long-term stable dividends while preserving capital value, TRIG invests in a range of operational renewable energy infrastructure assets with a particular focus on onshore wind and solar PV.

The firm, whose investment manager is InfraRed Capital Partners and operations manager is Renewable Energy Systems, raised £300 million from its initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange in July 2013.

At the beginning of this week, TRIG completed its 30th investment with the acquisition of the 7.2-megawatt (MW) Four Burrows Solar Park in Cornwall, south-west England. The firm now has 446MW of aggregate installed capacity across 18 onshore wind and 12 solar PV assets in the UK, France and Ireland.