Acciona’s El Romero Solar plant in Chile. Image: Acciona.
Spanish energy company Acciona plans to carry out an initial public offering (IPO) of its renewables unit before the end of June despite recent volatility among Spanish green energy stocks.
CFO José ?ngel Tejero told analysts in a conference call that the IPO of Acciona Energia is on track for completion in the first semester of 2021.
The announcement was made days after Spanish independent power producer Opdenergy postponed its IPO due to “challenging market conditions” for renewable energy companies, while Spanish clean energy developer Ecoener saw its shares tumble on its market debut last Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Spanish solar companies Solarpack and Solaria have both lost more than 30% of their market value so far this year.
“We remain committed and very excited about the opportunity to present to the market Acciona Energia as a stand-alone, pure-play renewable energy leader,” said Tejero, adding that the company is “determined to be one of the winners in this huge growth opportunity that lies ahead, driven by decarbonisation”.
Acciona last month secured shareholder approval for the floatation process for at least 25% of Acciona Energia, in a move to help it ramp up installed PV capacity to approximately 6GW by 2025. The company intends to maintain a stake of around 70% of the unit following the transaction.
During the first quarter, Acciona’s financial results were driven by a strong performance from its energy division, which posted a 20% year-on-year rise in revenues to €572 million (US$695.7 million) and EBITDA increase of 22% to €297 million.
The company comissioned a total of 319MW of renewables assets during Q1, including a 176MW PV plant in Chile. As of the end of March, the firm had just over 1.4GW of installed PV, with a significant portfolio in markets such as Chile, Mexico, South Africa and Egypt.
This year will see Acciona expand its PV presence in the US, with construction work set to begin on the 240MW Fort Bend project in Texas and the 100MW High Point plant in Illinois, both of which are expected to begin commercial operations in 2022.
