Citicore Renewable Energy Corp. (CREC) plans to raise P175 billion to finance the rollout of 5 gigawatts of power projects in five years, a top executive said Wednesday night.
CREC chairman Edgar Saavedra said the company is bullish on the renewable energy prospects to meet the country’s rising power demand and the push towards cleaner energy sources.
“The country has crisis in terms of energy… At the same time, there is push for more renewables, so the company is saying this is very promising even though we know there are challenges in the market. But we know the energy sector has a huge potential,” Saavedra said.
Saavedra said the company is building its first 1,000 MW of capacity. “We are building 1 gigawatt of solar, in roughly about 12 to 15 sites…We are maximizing pocket areas all over the country where there are small capacities,” he said.
He said the company already has an offtaker or buyer for 1 GW of capacity after it participated and won contracts in last year’s Green Energy Auction Program. These include around 800 MW of solar capacity and 200 MW of onshore wind capacity.
CREC president Oliver Tan said the first 1 GW of RE projects was almost 60-percent to 70-percent complete.
Tan said these projects are fully funded, while the next 1 GW would be partly financed by the company’s planned initial public offering. CREC plans to raise up to P12.9 billion from an initial public offering in the first quarter of 2024.
CREC plans to offer up to 2.9 billion common shares with an over-allotment option for another 435 million common shares at P3.88 apiece.
It said it would use the net proceeds from the offering to fund solar energy projects and battery energy storage systems in the pipeline.
CREC has installed capacity of 285.1 megawatts (MW) accounting for 19 percent of country’s renewable capacity of 1.5 gigawatts.
CREC tapped BDO Capital and Investments Corp. and UBS as the joint book runners for the offering.
CREC is the parent of the Philippine’s first renewable energy real estate investment trust—Citicore Energy REIT.