BCPG President Bundit Sapianchai said the valuation was reasonable since at Bt10 per share, the IPO price would be about 10 times BCPG’s current earnings per share of Bt1.
The figures are based on BCPG’s current projects only, and do not include projects under development.
“We have told investors that all projects in the pipeline are regarded as the upside” for investors, he said.
At present, BCPG’s solar-power plants in Thailand have an aggregate contracted capacity of 130 megawatts, consisting of projects that are commercially operating (118MW) and projects under development (12MW).
It also has solar plants in Japan with an aggregate contracted capacity of about 194MW, comprising those that are commercially operating (20MW) and projects under development (174MW).
Bundit said BCPG was confident it could achieve its target to nearly triple total installed capacity from more than 300MW at present to 1,000MW by 2020 because it was ready in terms of both finance and human resources and, importantly, there was high growth and vast opportunity in renewable-energy markets in Asia.
“There are 50 gigawatts of capacity waiting for us in Japan alone, where we have experienced local staff stationed with first-hand information. Provided we can acquire 10 per cent of the prime [solar-power |plants which have a contracted |electricity selling price of]| 40 yen [per kilowatt-hour], that would be 5 gigawatts already,” he explained.
As to the total megawatt growth target that the company aims to acquire or develop by 2020, about 300-400MW is expected to come from North Asia, where BCPG has a local team that it gained with its takeover of SunEdison’s Japanese solar-power business early this year.
The remainder will come from Thailand, Vietnam and other nearby countries.
“We are also looking at India, which has a plan to develop enormous renewable-power capacity,” he added.
BCPG will offer a total of 590 newly issued shares, representing 29.6 per cent of the company’s paid-up capital after the IPO.
Up to 68.85 million of these shares – 11.69 per cent – will be offered to Bangchak Petroleum shareholders, about 30-40 per cent to domestic institutional investors, and the rest to retail investors.
Manpong Senanarong, managing director of Kasikorn Securities, a financial adviser and lead underwriter of the IPO, said foreign institutional investors would not be allocated the new shares.
The IPO price will be set via a book-building process on September 12. The share subscription periods are scheduled to be September 14-16 for eligible Bangchak Petroleum shareholders, and September 19-20 for general investors.
BCPG expects to make its debut on the Stock Exchange of Thailand by the end of this month.
Manpong said current stock-market volatility did not alter the fundamentals of BCPG, which possessed renewable-power projects both in Thailand and abroad that had already generated stable cash flow of about Bt3 billion annually to the company.
He said BCPG “also has clear growth potential and a strong financial structure”.
The IPO price range of Bt9.80-Bt10 per share has been set principally on a discounted cash-flow basis, he added.
The company’s dividend pay-out ratio is set at a minimum 40 per cent of its net profit.
After the IPO, its paid-up capital will be Bt9.95 billion, with a par value of Bt5 per share.
BCPG yesterday signed an agreement to appoint Kasikorn Securities, Tisco Securities and Finansa Securities as lead underwriters, and KGI Securities, KT ZMICO Securities, Maybank Kim Eng Securities (Thailand) and Finansia Syrus Securities as co-underwriters of its IPO.
Besides solar, BCPG aims to develop other types of renewable-power projects, including geothermal, wind energy, biogas, biomass and waste-to-energy plants.
However, it will look only at projects that offer a reasonable return on investment, Bundit said.