CREC targets market debut in May

MANILA, Philippines — Citicore Renewable Energy Corp. (CREC) is pushing through with its public listing in the second quarter, but has downsized the planned initial public offering (IPO) by about P5 billion.

Based on the company’s latest prospectus, CREC is targeting to list its shares on the Philippine Stock Exchange on May 31 after the offer period, which is eyed to run from May 20 to May 24.

CREC earlier decided to adjust the indicative date of the offer from March to the second quarter after receiving inquiries from other institutions with regard to participation in the IPO.

The company will offer up to 1.786 billion firm shares with an overallotment option of up to 267.858 million shares at a price of up to P3.88 apiece.

The company was previously looking to offer up to 2.9 billion primary common shares and an overallotment option of up to 435 million secondary common shares at an offer price of up to P3.88 apiece.

This means proceeds for the upcoming IPO will be reduced to P7.97 billion from P12.94 billion.

The reduction in the IPO size was made following SM Investments Corp.’s recent P5-billion investment in Citicore Energy REIT Corp. (CREIT).

CREC is the sponsor firm of CREIT, which debuted in the PSE in February 2022.

CREC, directly and through its subsidiaries and joint ventures, manages a portfolio of renewable energy generation projects, power project development operations and retail electricity supply.

The company has a pipeline of renewable energy projects as it plans to add approximately one gigawatt of ready-to-build or under construction solar energy capacity each year through 2027.

Proceeds from the upcoming IPO will be used by CREC for capital expenditure and pipeline development requirements.

CREC is expected to be the second IPO this year after OceanaGold (Philippines) Inc.’s listing, targeted on May 7.