Greencoat Renewables PLC, a leading European clean energy company, has applied for a secondary listing on the Alternative Exchange (Altx) of the JSE, it announced in a statement.
The planned listing is expected to become effective later this year, pending regulatory approval in South Africa.
No new shares will be issued, and the company will maintain its primary listings on the Euronext Growth Market in Dublin and London’s Alternative Investment Market.
By entering the South African market, Greencoat Renewables aims to diversify its shareholder base, boost liquidity, and position itself to seize growth opportunities as market conditions evolve, it notes.
Business overview
Greencoat Renewables owns and operates utility-scale energy transition assets in Europe. The clean electricity generated by these assets is sold to national grids and corporates, directly through commercial power purchase agreements (PPAs).
“By acting as a long-term owner of renewable energy assets, Greencoat Renewables allows developers to recycle capital and enables investors to participate in the European energy transition while accessing attractive returns,” the group notes.
In response to the marked increase in corporate demand for green energy, the company has successfully entered into a series of long-term PPAs with a range of counterparties, including those operating within heavy industry and the technology sector.
Its portfolio includes wind farms, solar farms, and battery storage assets. It spans five jurisdictions in Europe, where it benefits from government-backed tariffs or liquid merchant markets.
“In its first eight years, the Article 9 fund has successfully grown the portfolio to 40 assets and generates enough energy each year to power approximately 750 000 homes. The business has increased its dividends for seven consecutive years and, with a highly contracted portfolio of cash-generative assets, expects to continue that trajectory going forward,” it notes.
Management team
Schroders Greencoat LLP – an experienced investment manager in the listed renewable energy infrastructure sector – manages the company with Bertrand Gautier and Paul O’Donnell as portfolio managers and Diarmuid Kelly as CFO.
“The cash generative qualities of our assets, combined with our intensive approach to asset management, deliver euro-denominated returns that we think will be attractive to the South African investment community,” Kelly notes.
Greencoat Renewables has paid out around €350 million (R7.1 billion) in dividends since its 2017 listing and currently offers a dividend yield of approximately 9%.
Backed by highly contracted cash flows, the company expects to distribute an additional €383 million (R7.8 billion) through to 2029, with about 71% of forecast income secured over the next five years.
According to co-portfolio manager O’Donnell, the growing demand for clean energy, driven in part by the energy needs of AI and data centres, means there is existing political support for the energy transition in Europe. – moneyweb.co.za
