Acciona aims to value energy unit at up to $10.8 billion in IPO

Published : 3 years ago, on 29/06/2021

(Reuters) – Spain’s Acciona said on Monday it was targeting the lower end of an original price range for a listing which is set to value its renewable energy unit at up to 9.05 billion euros ($10.80 billion).

Acciona decided to trim the price at which it will sell shares in its most profitable unit to 26.73-27.50 euros per share, from an initial range of 26.73-29.76 euros.

Acciona Energia is due to start trading on the Madrid stock market on July 1, in one of the biggest listings in a record year so far in Europe. Order books close on June 29.

Spurred by a global drive to reduce planet-warming carbon emissions, Acciona plans to use the proceeds to add to a renewable generation fleet currently dominated by wind farms in the United States, Australia, Spain, Chile and Mexico, by 2025.

Pricing the deal at the upper end of the narrower range would give Acciona Energia a market value of around 9.05 billion euros, Reuters calculations show.

In the 2021 ranking of major IPOs, this would come close to the 7.6 billion pounds ($10.58 billion) valuation achieved by British online food company Deliveroo, and below the 12.1 billion euros by Vodafone’s infrastructure unit Vantage Towers.

Following a record number of stock offerings at the beginning of this year, some of which performed poorly on the market, investors have appeared fatigued and some IPO candidates cancelled their plans.

Acciona, whose family owners will remain the biggest shareholders, had originally aimed to raise as much as 9.8 billion euros from what will be the largest IPO in Spain in more than six years.

Acciona said it has attracted enough demand to cover the offer, which will all be existing stock, representing 15% of the business, plus a greenshoe over-allotment option representing a further 15% of the amount offered, the company said.

It will raise around 1.36 billion euros from the 15% sale. Taking into account the greenshoe option, that could rise to 1.56 billion euros.

The company had originally given itself the option to list up to 25%. The publicly traded stake is now more likely to be 17.25%.

($1 = 0.8381 euros)

(Reporting by Aida Pelaez-Fernandez, Jesus Aguado and Isla Binnie; editing by Jason Neely and David Evans)