Greencoat raises €111m for winddeals

RENEWABLES infrastructure fund Greencoat has raised €111m in an oversubscribed share placing.

The cash will be used to refinance the company’s revolving credit facility, allowing it to make further acquisitions.

Greencoat owns five wind farms in Ireland.

The company issued 110 million shares at €1.01 a share, increasing the total issued share capital to 380 million ordinary shares, subject to shareholder approval.

Ireland’s first stock market-listed renewables firm, floated last summer.

It raised €270m from investors including State-backed AIB and the Government’s Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF).

ISIF did not participate in the new fundraising.

The new shares will represent around 41pc of existing issued ordinary share capital prior to the placing.

“We are very pleased with the support from new and existing investors,” said chairman Rónán Murphy.

“We look forward to completing the fundraising following our EGM next week and continuing to acquire value-accretive wind generation assets in Ireland’s attractive secondary market.”

This is the company’s first follow-on fundraising since its IPO.

Earlier this month, it announced that it is planning to raise as much as €250m over the next 12 months to take advantage of an increasingly active secondary market for wind farms.

Shares were up 0.4878pc at €1.030 each yesterday on the news.