The company has sufficient demand to increase capital by 100 million to 5.9 euros per share, the minimum of the price band, which reached 7.25
Econer steps forward and goes public. The company has obtained sufficient demand to increase its capital by 100 million euros, and its founder, president and CEO, Luis de Valdivia, has decided, after consulting his advisors, led by Société Générale, that it will debut on the Stock Exchange Spanish next May 4. According to him, he informed the CNMV at dawn from Thursday to Friday that he will issue about 17 million shares at the minimum price of the guideline, set between 5.9 and 7.25 euros per share. Its total valuation will be 336 million euros.
The first renewable energy company to debut in the Spanish market this year has lowered its expectations. But she has not given up. Ecoener, which received the green light for its brochure on April 15 by the CNMV, agreed on Wednesday to cut the capital increase, originally planned for 182 million, to 100 million, due to difficulties in covering the entire book. Until now, the sole owner was Luis de Valdivia, who will remain the majority shareholder with 70% of the firm, founded in 1988 and based in La Coruña.
A ‘boom’ that has not arrived
Investor greed for green paper has been moderating in what was anticipated as a renewable boom that has not finally arrived. And that Ecoener has presented itself with the mantra that it is not a newcomer to the sector. It has a history of project construction (since its creation, about 200 megawatts of power), it has an installed capacity of 141 megawatts, distributed in 17 projects in operation, all of them owned, and also has another 142 under construction and 1,500 (1.5 gigawatts) under development, of which 1,200 are in early stages.
The money you have raised will go entirely to growth. It will not amortize even one euro of the 182 million euros it had in net debt at the end of last year and it will not pay a dividend in the next three years. However, investors are being very cautious, after four months of sharp declines in the sector after spectacular revaluations in the past. Solaria, which shot up 248% in 2020, is the red lantern of the Ibex so far this year with a decline of 27.5%. Capital Energy, which had also decided to make the jump to the Stock Market with a capital increase, has decided to postpone it because the valuations did not reach the target, as published by CincoDías on April 1.
The company included in the prospectus an anchor investor, the manager GAM, who promised to invest 15 million euros, which at the fixed price would give it a stake of close to 4.5%. But the search for the 182 million, expandable to 200, has become a more complicated task than initially planned. The amount will finally be 100 million, without the possibility of increasing it, since the option to expand the operation by 10 million has been canceled. This also implies that there will be no stabilization activities after the premiere.
Diversification
From the beginning, the firm has shown its potential in three types of energy: solar, hydro and wind. Of the first technology, it has 72.6 megawatts in operation, 47.4 under construction and 415 under development. As for the second, it has 52.4 megawatts in operation, 3.1 under construction and 469 under development. Finally, it has wind assets for 16.2 operating megawatts, 91.1 under construction and 623 under development.
Another feature is the internationalization of the company. 22% of the energy generated comes from outside of Spain. It is present in Honduras, Guatemala, Panama and the Dominican Republic. The first market produces 16.22 megawatts and in the second, 14.2 megawatts. Among all these markets it has 65 workers distributed.
Sociéte Générale works as the coordinating bank of the operation, while Banco Sabadell, CaixaBank, Credit Agricole and HSBC are in a second level and Banco Cooperativo, in a third. Latham & Watkins handles legal matters for the company and Linklaters works on the side of the banks.
Opdenergy goes after
It is expected that, after Ecoener, Opdenergy will debut on May 7, which it expects to raise between 325 and 375 million with a valuation between 826 and 926 million. Founded in 2005, today it has 584 megawatts of its own installed. It is present, in addition to Spain, in the United States, Mexico, Chile, Italy and the United Kingdom.
