SPNEC board approves hike in capital stock

The board of Solar Philippines Nueva Ecija Corp. (SPNEC) has approved the increase in the company’s authorized capital stock to 50 billion shares from 10 billion shares, subject to stockholder and regulatory approvals.

This would prepare SPNEC for asset-for-share swaps with Solar Philippines Inc., its parent firm, and additional capital raises to expand its solar project portfolio, subject to third-party valuations and approvals. The company is planning to have further consultations and a stockholder’s meeting on this proposal.

This comes in light of “strong investor interest” in SPNEC’s stock, which had over P5 billion in trading over the past month and became the PSE’s best-performing IPO of 2021, closing the year up 28 percent.

“We are thankful for the level of interest in SPNEC, even as a single pre-operating project. At the same time, we note the feedback that adding our already operating or contracted projects would make SPNEC even more attractive. We wish to take this opportunity to give our public shareholders this option, in the interest of advancing SPNEC’s value and profitability,” Solar Philippines founder Leandro L. Leviste said.

“We see that other companies have successfully listed assets through share swaps, and we support SPNEC doing the same if that is what our public shareholders want.”

Solar Philippines was founded in 2013 to accelerate the adoption of solar energy in the Philippines. Since then, it has developed a pipeline of over 10 gigawatts of solar projects, according to Department of Energy figures. These include an operational 63 megawatts in Batangas in partnership with Korea Electric Power Corporation; 340 MW operating and under construction in Tarlac, Batangas, and Cavite in partnership with Prime Infra of the Razon Group; and several projects on the rooftops of SM malls.

In 2020, Solar Philippines signaled its strategy to accelerate its developments through strategic partnerships. This in support of the DOE’s increase of the Renewable Portfolio Standard target to 35 percent of the country’s energy that would need to be sourced from renewable energy by 2030, which would translate to the need to build over 20,000 MW of solar.