Infigen raising USD 114m for Australian wind, solar

Australian renewables firm Infigen Energy (ASX:IFN) aims to raise AUD 151 million (USD 114m/EUR 107m) through an entitlement offer in order to finance wind and solar projects and increase balance sheet flexibility.

Managing director Ross Rolfe said the Australian energy market is in transition from a high emissions past to a lower emissions future and the capital raising would allow Infigen to help.

“Infigen has a pipeline of mature development projects to draw from in delivering some of the new capacity that the market will require,” Rolfe added. A presentation by the company shows it has 557 MW of operational wind farms, 113 MW under construction, and around 870 MW of wind projects with planning approval. It also has 110 MW of approved solar schemes.

Under the non-renounceable pro-rata offer, eligible Infigen security holders can subscribe for one new security for every 4.6 securities held at an offer price of AUD 0.89 apiece. This is a discount of 11.4% to the close price on March 31. The institutional component of the offer was conducted on Monday and Tuesday, while the retail component opens on April 7 and closes on April 27.

TCI Security Holders, which has a 32.1% stake in Infigen, have pre-committed to take up their respective entitlements in full. The same investor has committed to sub-underwriting a portion of the retail component of the entitlement offer for up to 16.9 million securities, which could bring its share in Infigen’s total issued securities to 33.9%.

Infigen also said this week it is lifting its guidance for underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in the fiscal year to June 30, 2017, to AUD 147 million. This is up by 22% on the year, and the upgrade is based on eight months unaudited actual results.

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