Soltec plans IPO

From pv magazine Spain.

Spanish solar tracker manufacturer Soltec today announced it is finalizing an initial public offering (IPO) with the aim of making its debut on the Spanish stock markets of Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao and Valencia to “raise capital to finance its business plan, strengthen its balance sheet and position itself before the expected growth of the photovoltaic industry.”

Local lenders Banco Santander and CaixaBank will act as joint global coordinators and book-runners of an IPO which could raise up to €150 million and Soltec, when asked about the timing of the exercise, told pv magazine: “If possible, before the end of the year.”

Institutional investors will be offered the bulk of the stock with employees – who will receive a 10% discount – and “selected related investors” offered up to 2% of the shares issued with a maximum total purchase price of €3 million. An unnamed Soltec shareholder will also offer a secondary over-allotment of shares. The press release issued by Soltec to announce the IPO did not reveal how much extra stock would be available.

Soltec wants to use the IPO income to finance growth and execute the business plan of the Powertis engineering, procurement and construction services subsidiary it created in 2004. Soltec and Powertis reported combined revenues of €359 million last year.

The IPO would be the first in the Spanish solar sector since late 2018, when developer Solarpack went public.

Soltec, founded in 2004, says it has supplied trackers for PV projects with a total generation capacity of around 7.1 GW – 42% of them in Latin America, excluding Mexico; 31% in North America and Mexico; 25% in Europe, the Middle East and Africa; and 2% in the Asia-Pacific market. Business intelligence company IHS Markit rates Soltec the world’s third-largest tracker supplier. The company is present in 16 countries and has more than 1,320 employees.