UK Downing Renewables plans equity raising to fund acquisitions

Britain's Downing Renewables and Infrastructure Trust Plc (LON:DORE) said on Wednesday that it will seek to raise up to GBP 25 million (USD 33.7m/EUR 28.9m) from the sale of new shares to further diversify its portfolio of green energy and infrastructure assets.

The company intends to place up to 24.5 million new shares at 102.50 pence apiece, a discount of 1.68% to DORE's close on September 28.

The placing, which opened on Wednesday, is scheduled to close on October 13. Its result will be announced on October 14, with the new shares due to begin trading on October 18.

The renewables investment trust will add the proceeds from the share sale to remaining funds from the company's initial public offering (IPO) in December 2020 for potential acquisitions in Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Poland and the UK. It has identified a pipeline with a total value of GBP 4.3 billion to support its growth in the hydropower, wind, solar, battery and utilities sectors.

The fund's investment manager, Downing LLP, is already close to securing four deals worth a combined GBP 87 million, DORE said. One of them is the purchase of a 40% stake in a 100-MW shallow-water wind farm on Lake Vanern in southern Sweden, for which exclusive talks with Bagnall Energy were announced in January. The project is being developed by Cloudberry Clean Energy.

Negotiations are also ongoing on DORE's SEK-300-million (USD 34.3m/EUR 29.5m) offer for three hydropower plants and a power distribution unit from Swedish multi-utility company Edsbyn Elverk, as announced in May.

(GBP 1 = USD 1.348/EUR 1.157)

(SEK 10 = USD 1.144/EUR 0.982)

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