Image: ORIT.
The Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust (ORIT) has announced plans to raise approximately £100 million through a proposed issue of further ordinary shares.
This would enable the investment manager to target continued expansion of its diversified portfolio across different jurisdictions and different technologies. It has identified a number of renewable energy assets with an aggregate value of approximately £1.3 billion that would meet the company’s investment policy and are therefore suitable for acquisition.
These assets are located in the UK, as well as in Germany, Ireland, Poland, Sweden and Finland. ORIT has undertaken preliminary due diligence in relation to this pipeline of assets, and made non-binding offers. The pipeline has a value of approximately £256 million under exclusivity to the company. Of this, 71MW are held in Octopus Managed Funds.
ORIT currently has a portfolio that includes 22 solar assets, along with two wind assets, and an aggregate total capacity of 315MW. This included using funds from its Initial Public Offering (IPO) for the successful acquisition of eight UK solar assets for a cash consideration of £144.3 million.
“We have had a very positive start since listing in December 2019, having built a portfolio of 24 assets across a variety of different sectors and geographies within ORIT’s mandate,” said Chris Gaydon, Iinvestment director at Octopus Renewables. “This fundraising will enable us to maximise the opportunities from our strong pipeline of potential investments, continue our growth trajectory and develop the portfolio further.”
The company is looking to issue a placing, open offer, offer for subscription and intermediaries offer, with a target of 96,551,724 ordinary shares at a price of 103.5 pence per ordinary share.
As such it offers a premium of 6.3% to the ORIT’s Net Asset Value (NAV) per share as at 31 March 2021, and a 3.5% discount to the closing price per share on 9 June 2021, which sat at 107.2 pence per ordinary share.
Phil Austin, chairman of ORIT said they were please to announced the planned fundraise, which follows 18 months of “good progress” as a listed fund. In March, the company hailed the success of its inaugural year with a gross asset value of £441 million.
“The sector continues to see positive growth as more investors realise the need to invest in assets that look to reduce the carbon footprint,” Austin continued, adding that they “look forward to updating shareholders on our progress with the fundraising".
The issue is conditional on passing shareholder resolutions, and will be proposed at a general meeting on or around 6 July 2021.