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Energisa seeks R$2bn in second share offering this year

Power company seeks to raise funds for expansion by placing shares in Brazil and abroad

19/01/2024

Energisa, the company that controls power distributors in 11 Brazilian states, is preparing a new stock offering, as reported Thursday by Valor’s business website Pipeline. The operation, announced the day after Inter Bank raised $161.9 million in the United States, aims to attract around R$2 billion to invest in business expansion.

The company said that it is still working on the documentation “with a view to possibly conducting a public offering for the primary distribution of common and preferred shares.” The plan is to conduct the offering in Brazil, but also to seek international placements. The preliminary schedule foresees a launch after the close of trading on Friday.

Energisa has appointed as coordinators the banks Itaú BBA, leader of the operation, Bank of America (BofA), Bradesco BBI, BTG Pactual, Citi, J.P. Morgan, and Scotiabank Brasil, which are carrying out “preparatory work” to define the viability and terms of the offer.

According to the company, if the operation goes ahead, the controlling shareholder Gipar should accompany the capital increase in proportion to its stake of approximately 27.7%.

The company points out that the effective completion of the offer “is subject, among other factors beyond the company’s control, to market conditions, obtaining the necessary approvals, including the respective applicable corporate approvals, procedures with financial institutions inherent to this type of operation at the stage it is at, and the effective interest of investors.”

On Wednesday, Inter surprised the market with the announcement of the first follow-on share offering of the year by a Brazilian company. The bank raised $161.9 million after pricing the shares at $4.4, a discount of 3.08% from the day’s close.

According to sources familiar with the matter, the aim of Inter’s offering was to attract international funds to its shareholder base. When Inter moved to Nasdaq from B3 in June 2022, it didn’t do an IPO in the U.S., so its shareholder base remained essentially local funds. After a year and a half and with the bank’s results improving, a “tactical” offer could help attract other classes of investors and improve the liquidity of the stock.

Given the size of Inter’s offering, with average checks of around $15 million, the bank aimed to attract up to 10 new funds to its base. The idea, sources say, was to bring in a mix of U.S. and European funds, some long only, some focused on the technology sector, and some on emerging markets. With more liquidity and different classes of investors, Inter should see less volatility in its stock, making it more attractive to other classes of investors.

*Por Maria Luíza Filgueiras, Mariana Ribeiro, Álvaro Campos — São Paulo

Source: Valor International

https://valorinternational.globo.com/
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Energisa enters two states with an eye on new businesses

Energy arm will start to operate in group’s concession area

08/23/2022

Roberta Godói — Foto: Silvia Zamboni/Valor

Roberta Godói — Foto: Silvia Zamboni/Valor

Energisa is growing in non-regulated activities with an innovative strategy. It is using (Re)energisa, its arm in the distributed generation, free market trading, and value added services segments, to offer in its concession area in the states of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul solar subscription services and distributed generation (self-generation).

The strategy focuses on the opening of the energy market, energy transition, and empowering consumers. In this scenario of modernization of the power industry, the company is investing R$1.1 billion to take advantage of opportunities to drive businesses in new states. The amount represents 18% of the total invested by the group.

Roberta Godói, the company’s vice-president of energy solutions, told Valor that the legal framework of distributed generation, in January, created a sense of urgency in the development of new projects in this segment. The industry foresees a “race for the sun” this year, as consumers are expected to join now to use the grid free of charge by 2045.

“It was the trigger we needed to outline a plan. We have 91 megawatts of distributed generation, and we want to end the year with 230 MW,” she said. “We have already bought all the inputs for components to build all plants for 2022 and a little bit for 2023.”

The strategy required some working capital, but the group is flush and aims to lock in costs – the disruption of production chains has caused concern in the sector and made capital expenditure more expensive.

Until now, distributed generation projects were focused on power utility Cemig’s area in the state of Minas Gerais, one of the best regions for solar power generation in Brazil. The new business front in the Central-West region is not necessarily a market to be explored, since the company is active in the regulated market, but aims to keep customers who want to migrate to distributed generation within the group’s umbrella.

“We are going to the states where Energisa is already operating because these are markets that bring a lot of opportunities. These are thriving states where the agribusiness sector drives services, industry, and commerce. It is key for us to be in our areas.”

It may seem strange for the company to operate in its own concession area, since the connection of distributed generation systems to the grid harms the distributors’ market. However, the idea is to capture this client who wants to stop being a regulated consumer.

The utilities complain, since consumers migrate and they lose part of those who pay sectorial charges. In the case of (Re)energisa, it evaluates opportunities to maintain revenues, since the consumer is still a client, but in another business area. In this case, with the solar subscription service.

“If clients across Brazil are already starting to migrate to distributed generation, then let us be in our areas. If they are going to move on to solar power, we can keep them,” she said.

The company focuses on the solar generation because retail and small and medium-sized companies take advantage of the more modular systems compared to those of other sources, while construction works take less time. The executive came from the telecoms sector, where she followed the disruptive opening of the market to consumers.

Less than a year and a half ago, she left the telecoms sector for Energisa in one of the most promising fields of the power industry, one with aggressive targets. “With the plants in operation, we have now 2,200 customers. At the beginning of the year, there were 1,700. We want to end the year with 5,200.”

Although all the plants generate solar power, the company is studying biogas, since the concession area has a strong agribusiness vocation with residues from agribusiness.

There is more than 12.4 GW of installed power in the segment of self-generation, data from the Brazilian Electricity Regulatory Agency (Aneel) show.

*By Robson Rodrigues — São Paulo

Source: Valor International

https://valorinternational.globo.com/
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