Citicore Power targets Q1 listing

MANILA, Philippines — Citicore Power, a sister company of Megawide Construction Corp., is looking to list its real estate investment trust (REIT) unit in the first quarter of 2022 instead of this year, according to BDO Capital & Investment Corp.

In an interview, BDO Capital president Ed Francisco said the listing would most likely happen end-January or early February next year as the Philippine Stock Exchange is dealing with quite a number of companies intending to go public.

BDO Capital is the joint global coordinator for Citicore Power’s public listing.

Francisco said the company has been receiving a lot of interest from investors.

“It’s attracting the foreign green investors, especially long term investors,” he said.

Francisco said it is the first REIT offering of its kind, the first non-real estate and because it is a solar company, it is sustainable.

“It would also be the first non-real estate REIT listing,” he said.

Citicore REIT or CREIT sponsored by Citicore Renewable Energy Corp. (CREC) and Citicore Solar Tarlac 1 Inc. plans to sell up to one billion primary shares at a maximum price of P3.15 per share, plus 1.7 billion secondary shares to be offered by selling shareholder CREC, which has an oversubscription option of up to 418 million shares.

Including the overallotment option, CREIT expects to raise P9.78 billion in proceeds, Citicore Power CEO Oliver Tan said. Proceeds from the primary offering, amounting to P3.17 billion will be used for the acquisition of properties in Bulacan and South Cotabato.

About P6.61 billion is expected to be raised from the secondary offer, assuming the overallotment option is fully exercised.

Citicore has a well balanced portfolio of renewable energy businesses.

These include eight operating solar power plants plus two more under construction, three biomass plantations, one run-of-river hydropower plant and one water distribution concession.