Elia Group has signed agreements to raise an €850m ($922m) equity package through a private placement (PIPE) of new shares to fund infrastructure investments, ensuring grid reliability and driving clean energy competitiveness.
The PIPE is part of a broader plan to raise €2.2bn ($2.3bn), with a rights issue to follow the close of the PIPE.
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Beyond this, the plan includes a rights issue of €1.35bn, expected to be completed by the end of April 2025.
The private placement involves key investors such as ATLAS Infrastructure with The Future Fund, BlackRock, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), and Elia Group’s reference shareholder, Publi-T/NextGrid Holding.
The proceeds will be channelled into Elia’s infrastructure to support its growth strategy.
ATLAS with The Future Fund will subscribe to €234.6m, and BlackRock and CPP Investments €117.3m each.
Publi-T/NextGrid will invest €380.7m, maintaining its 44.79% ownership through a pro-rata investment.
This private placement is crucial to secure Elia Group’s equity funding requirements, enabling the execution of its 2025 to 2028 investment plan.
The PIPE will result in the issuance of 7.6 million new Class B shares to ATLAS with The Future Fund, BlackRock and CPP Investments, and 6.2 million new shares to Publi-T/NextGrid.
The shares issued to Publi-T/NextGrid will consist of 16.9 thousand new Class B shares and 6.1 million new Class C shares.
The new shares under the PIPE will be issued at €61.88 per share, corresponding to the 30-day volume weighted average price, adjusted for the 2024 dividend entitlement detachment.
The PIPE’s closing and the issuance of new shares are conditional upon certain requirements, particularly the effective launch of the rights issue.
Elia Group has received irrevocable commitment subscriptions representing more than 55% of the contemplated rights issue size.
The non-committed portion is expected to be underwritten by a syndicate of banks.
ATLAS, BlackRock and CPP Investments have committed to exercising any subscription rights attached to the shares received in the PIPE.
Similarly, Publi-T/NextGrid has committed to subscribe to all rights it will receive on both its existing and newly issued PIPE shares.
Publi-T/NextGrid will acquire Publipart’s rights corresponding to their ownership of Class A shares (2.5%), intending to exercise them and subscribe to the corresponding number of new Class C shares.
