Power plant operator OPC Energy has raised NIS 386 million in its TASE IPO at a company valuation of NIS 1.4 billion. The company originally sought to raise NIS 350 million ($100 million), but in view of the strong demand, which reached NIS 765 million, slightly more was raised.
OPC is owned by IC Power, controlled by Idan Ofer's Kenon Holdings Ltd (TASE:KEN: NYSE: KEN-WI). Kenon attempted an IPO on Wall Street early this year at a $1 billion company value, but the effort did not succeed. Following the failure in the US, it was decided to hold a TASE IPO for OPC, IC Power's subsidiary for the company's energy business in Israel. OPC is regarded as attractive to investors, but in view of the failure of the attempted Wall Street IPO, Kenon demanded that the underwriters assume full responsibility for the offering. This undertaking has now proved unnecessary.
Kenon plans to use the proceeds from the IPO to repay a $200 million loan from Israel Corporation (TASE: ILCO) used for an in investment in Chinese auto venture Qoros.
The IPO was originally planned to reflect a $350 million value for OPC, but Entropy yesterday published a report that assigned a value of just over $390 million to the company.
Published by Globes [online], Israel Business News - www.globes-online.com - on August 3, 2017
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