Philippines' Citicore prepares for IPO, to invest $4b in renewable energy

MANILA, Feb 10 (Reuters): Citicore Renewable Energy Corp, one of the Philippines' biggest solar power producers, is planning to go public this year to fund a $4 billion investment in new solar projects over the next five years, its CEO said on Friday.

"For a country such as ours with limited oil and coal but have abundant sun, wind and water, it is imperative we deploy capital investment into renewable energy," Citicore President and CEO Oliver Tan told reporters.

Citicore will file documents for an initial public offering in the second quarter and complete its listing within the year, Tan said, adding it will be large enough to attract foreign investors for an international tranche.

Fresh capital from the listing will allow Citicore, which has an installed capacity of 241 megawatts via solar panels, to invest $800 million this year to increase output to 1 gigawatt (GW), and around $4 billion to reach 5 GW within five years, Tan said. Citicore is also pursuing seven offshore wind projects with a total capacity of 3 GW.

Citicore is the parent firm of Citicore Energy REIT Corp (CREIT.PS) and is a sister company of Megawide Construction Corp (MWIDE.PS).