Octopus Renewables scoops £350 million in IPO

Octopus Renewables will
make a debut this week at the London Stock Exchange following its successful Initial
Public Offering that yielded 350 million pounds (circa USD 460.1 million).

The shares of the company are expected to start trading on the
exchange anytime today, on the Main
Market of the London bourse.

Since being
established in 2010, Octopus Renewables has been investing in shovel-ready or
operating investments across Europe, Australia, the UK, and other regions. The company
focuses on onshore wind farms and solar photovoltaic (PV) plants.

Today, Octopus
Renewables boasts of a global portfolio valued at more than£3 billion, having grown to become the largest investor of solar power
in Europe.

A filing by the company revealed that it sold close to 36.65 million ordinary shares during its IPO. An
additional 54.79 million and 258.57 million ordinary shares will be sold under
an intermediary offer and an offer for subscription respectively.

The price of each of the issued shares was GBP 1.0, with demand materially exceeding the maximum
allowed and targeted
issue quantity.

In total, the company’s
listing yielded net proceeds of about GBP 343 million. It plans to use the new
round of funding to expand its operations in Europe and Australia. Apart from increasing
its renewable energy assets, Octopus Renewables also intends to invest in non-generation
renewable energy-related assets, either operational, under construction or shovel-ready.

According to the
company, the investments will “provide investors with an attractive and
sustainable level of income returns”.

When the company
announced plans to go public in November, it said that its planned shareholder
return would lie between 7% and 8% in the medium to long term, with an initial
dividend yield per year of 3%, which is expected to increase to 5% by 2021.

Octopus AIF
Management Ltd, the company’s fund manager, is already targeting a renewables
pipeline of about GBP 2.8 billion and has submitted non-binding offers for third-party
assets amounting to GBP 624 million. The projects are expected to use up a big
chunk of the new funding.

Octopus Renewables
is owned by the Octopus Group and will be trading under the symbol “ORIT”.