French renewable energy developer Voltalia has said it is looking to raise €170 million through a free allotment of warrants to its shareholders.
The warrants will be priced at between €7.46 and €8.60 per share and the programme will run until the end of the month. Voltalia hopes the move will increase its public ownership from the current seven percent to 22 percent.
The developer recently revised its growth target upwards after completing the acquisition of Portuguese developer Martifer Solar in August, aiming to have 1GW of consolidated installed capacity by 2019. The capital increase’s proceeds will go towards financing this growth, in first instance by funding projects totalling 215MW which are at “an advanced stage of development”.
Aside from its home market in France, Voltalia is significantly active in Brazil and also has a presence in emerging markets such as Chile and India. Chief executive Sébastien Clerc said the proposed capital increase “is a real change of dimension” for the company.
“Building on our positioning as an integrated industrial player and our presence in 17 countries, we have set new objectives,” he said in a statement. “We would like to include our historical shareholders in this ambitious project, while significantly broadening our free-float.”
Voltalia had previously indicated that a capital increase programme would occur next year. However, Clerc told Infrastructure Investor that as a result of favourable market conditions it has proceeded earlier than planned.
The new share capital programme will see Proparco, the French Development Agency subsidiary, become a shareholder in Voltalia. Proparco will exercise allotments of between €8 million and €15 million and the pair plan to cooperate on new projects in “countries of common interest.”
Voltalia currently has a total installed capacity of 577MW across the wind, solar, hydro and biomass sectors.
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