European renewable energy infrastructure company Greencoat Renewables is seeking a secondary listing on the JSE’s Alternative Exchange, or AltX.

The company is already listed on the Alternative Investment Market in London and the Euronext Growth Market in Dublin, having concluded its initial public offering in 2017.

It has a market capitalisation of about €850-million and has a portfolio of 40 wind, solar and battery storage assets with a combined capacity of 1.5 GW in five European markets, including Ireland, Sweden, Spain, France and Germany.

The clean electricity generated by these assets is sold to national grids and to corporates directly through commercial power purchase agreements.

CFO Diarmuid Kelly tells Engineering News that the intention behind the proposed JSE listing is to diversify its shareholder base, enhance liquidity and position the company for growth opportunities in Europe.

The company will list all its issued share capital, which is fully fungible, and could consider the issuance of more shares at a future date.

Greencoat Renewables is not planning to develop assets in the South African market, however.

Instead, Kelly says the aim is to offer institutional and retail investors in South Africa an opportunity to invest in a company that has a growing portfolio of assets that has enabled it to implement a progressive dividend policy, which makes payments four times a year.

“The cash generative qualities of our assets combined with our intensive approach to asset management delivers euro-denominated returns that we think will be attractive to the South African investment community,” he argues.

Having previously been CFO at Sirius Real Estate, which also has a dual listing on the JSE, Kelly reports that Greencoat Renewables has been assessing a JSE listing for the past 12 months and recently completed a non-deal roadshow on which it met some 20 institutional investors.

He says the legal, tax and regulatory regime governing JSE-listed firms, together with the sophistication of the investment community, made it an attractive option for a possible listing.

In addition, the familiarity South African investors have with real estate investment trusts has also made the JSE attractive, as it means there is an “knowledge overlap” with the Greencoat Renewables value proposition.

The listing is likely to take place in mid-June, subject to the necessary regulatory approvals, and Kelly reports that a pre-listing circular should be published in the coming two weeks.