Orit to raise £100m for investing in emerging opportunities

A target issue of up to 96,551,724 ordinary shares will be offered for subscription and intermediaries

Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust (Orit) intends to raise £100m by issuing new shares to invest in emerging opportunities.

This announcement comes one week after Orit stated that the company was considering the issue of new ordinary shares.

The details of these new ordinary shares will be set out in a prospectus. It is expected to be published by Orit later today.

Orit chairman Phil Austin said: We are pleased to publish our new prospectus, outlining our planned fundraise which follows 18 months of good progress as a listed investment trust. During this time the investment manager has successfully committed the funds raised at the time of the IPO, in line with our stated strategy.

The sector continues to see positive growth as more investors realise the need to invest in assets that look to reduce the carbon footprint, he said.

We’d like to thank our shareholders for their continued support to date, as we look towards this fundraising to finance ORIT’s next chapter of growth. We look forward to updating shareholders on our progress with the fundraising, he said.

A target issue of up to 96,551,724 ordinary shares will be offered for subscription and intermediaries. Each ordinary share will cost 103.5p. It represents a premium of 6.3% to the Net Asset Value (NAV) per ordinary share as at 31 March 2021.

It also represents a discount of 3.5% to the closing price per ordinary share on 9 June 2021 of 107.2p per ordinary share.

The issue of these new ordinary shares is conditional on the passing of the shareholder resolutions. It will be proposed at a general meeting that will take place on or around 6 July 2021. The circular convening the general meeting is expected to be published later today.

Orit investment director Chris Gaydon said: We have had a very positive start since listing in December 2019, having built a portfolio of 24 assets across a variety of different sectors and geographies within ORIT’s mandate.

This fundraising will enable us to maximise the opportunities from our strong pipeline of potential investments, continue our growth trajectory and develop the portfolio further, he said.

The reason for this new issue is because Orit has identified a significant pipeline of renewable energy asset with a value of approximately £1.3bn. These pipeline assets have a value of £256m and are under exclusivity to Orit. Approximately £1bn relates to projects over which the investment manager has submitted non-binding offers.

The investment manager has also identified further renewable energy investments with an aggregate value of approximately £3bn. They would potentially be suitable for acquisition by Orit.

In addition to the investment opportunities, the investment manager is progressing on behalf of the company. Orit has near-term investment obligations in relation to the construction of a wind asset and the conditional acquisition of a wind asset.