Riyadh – Mubasher: Saudi-based ACWA Power International is planning to float a stake on the stock market in the coming period, CEO Paddy Padmanathan has said.
The initial public offering (IPO) will help the firm boost its expansion and development plans. The move will inject fresh liquidity into Saudi Arabia’s largest power and water project developer to bolster its financial position, Padmanathan told Bloomberg News, without specifying a date for implementing the share sale.
“An IPO is an option we will definitely utilise,” the CEO added.
ACWA Power's chairman Mohammad Abunayyan had previously announced that the Saudi firm hired legal and financial advisors for the upcoming IPO, expecting that the step would be completed by the second half of 2018.
ACWA Power International has power projects with a combined generation capacity of 22.5 gigawatts that required $30.5 billion in investment, in addition to its current projects in Oman, South Africa, Jordan, Morocco, Bulgaria, Turkey, and the UAE.
The Saudi giant will add Egypt and Oman to its project portfolio over the next time.
ACWA Power’s CEO said that the company’s plants generate a cash of around $300 million per annum.
“We are an operator to the core, we don’t need to own 100 percent, but that’s the model we’re going to carry on,” Padmanathan noted.
In 2017, the Saudi company sold bonds at a combined value of $814 million.
