EDL Gen raises US$200 million in second share offer
EDL Gen raises US$200 million in second share offer
EDL-Generation Public Com-pany (EDL-Gen) have raised about US$ 200 million (about 1,611 billion kip) through the sale of 357,619,715 new ordinary shares.
This represents an increase in its registered capital from 868,597,050 shares (par value 4,000 kip) to 1,226,216,765 shares.
The shares received approval from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce and were listed on the LSX for daily trading effective 31 July 2012. BCEL-KT Securities Company Limited (BCEL-KT) acted as financial advisors and lead underwriters for the offering.
KT ZMICO Securities Company Limited (KTZ), of Thailand, assisted with the international placement. BCEL-KT is a joint venture between Banque Pour Le Commerce Exterieur Lao (BCEL) and KTZ. The secondary offerings, the first ever of their kind in Laos, were comprised of a Rights Issue to existing shareholders of 210,845,938 shares, and a Public Offering for 146,773,777 shares at a per share price of 4,300 kip (approx. US$ 0.54) and 4,800 kip (approx. US$ 0.60), respectively.
The Rights Issue was at a ratio of existing to new shares of four-to-one and the Public Offering was 1.7 times oversubscribed by domestic and foreign investors, due to, among other factors, EDL-Gen's strong fundamentals, strategic location, significant growth prospects and attractive dividend yield (11.0 percent for the fiscal year just ended).
As of the close of market on 31 July 2012, the market capitalisation of the company was approximately US$728 million, equivalent to a price -to-earnings ratio of 10.3 per share and a price-to-book ratio of 1.1 per share, based on FYE 2011 financials.
As part of its business expansion plan, the proceeds of the offerings will be used to purchase ordinary shares in four independent hydropower plants in the Lao PDR. The plants, which consist of Theun Hinboun, Nam Ngum 2, Houay Ho and Nam Lik 1-2, have a combined installed capacity of 1,365 MW. This will increase the company's electricity capacity from 387 MW to 881 MW by the end of the year.
EdL-Gen was established on December 15, 2010 by the government of the Lao PDR, as part of its restructuring of the electricity industry in the country. As such, Electricite Du Laos, the state owned power company, spun-off and privatised its electricity-generating assets into a newly formed company, EdL-Gen, to operate the power generation business.
EDL continues to own and operate the transmission and distribution assets, substations, branches, headquarters and other non-generating assets. BCEL-KT acted as financial advisor to the government of the Lao PDR on the restructuring and also as lead underwriter for the approximately US$120 million initial public offering for EDL-Gen, the first ever on the Lao Stock Exchange. In addition, KTZ assisted with the international placement
vientiane times
