Greencoat Renewables plc, which invests in windfarms, has raised gross proceeds of €282m in a share placing that the company says was oversubscribed.

The placing price was €1.12 per share, a 6.6% premium to the net asset value reported in the end-2021 balance sheet.

Greencoat invested c.€360m in Irish assets during 2021 and early 2022, increasing its Irish portfolio size by a third. The company says it is the largest owner of windfarm assets in Ireland, with 16% market share.

Greencoat executed transactions in Sweden, Finland and Spain in 2021, with the acquisition of Erstark South in Sweden in Q4 2021 and two forward sale commitments to acquire Kokkoneva in Finland and Torrubia in Spain.

Chairman Rónán Murphy commented: "I am very pleased with the oversubscribed placing, reflecting shareholder confidence as we continue to build one of the leading European renewable energy infrastructure companies.

In Association with

“As the transition to renewable energy gathers pace, I am very optimistic about the prospects for the business and look forward to deploying these proceeds to deliver on our ambitious growth strategy."

The company says it has c.380MW of wind assets under exclusivity across a mix of operating and forward sale opportunities located in Sweden, France, Spain and in another country, representing a pipeline in excess of €600m of enterprise value.

Obligations under committed forward sale investments, currently undergoing construction, amount to an additional c.€228m of proceeds payable on completion by the company over the next 12 months.

Greencoat Renewables’ debt at the end of 2021 was €630m. The company has indicated that some of the share issue proceeds will be used to partly pay down a €76m revolving credit facility.

The company paid a dividend of 6.06c per share for 2021 and has a dividend payout target of 6.18c per share for 2022.

On that basis, participants in the share issue are doing so on the promised yield of 5.5%.