RASLAG makes strong stock market debut

MANILA, Philippines — Renewable energy developer RASLAG Corp. attracted significant fanfare in its debut on the local stock market, as investors warmed up to its solar power offerings.

RASLAG Corp. finished its listing day on the Philippine Stock Exchange up 2.5% to P2.05 apiece. Shares in RASLAG, listed under the name ASLAG, posted an intra-day high of 6%.

For Aniceto Pangan, trader at Diversified Securities, investors flocked to RASLAG's IPO due in part to the firm's expansion plans it laid out in its prospectus. RASLAG's IPO puts it in a select list of energy firms that debuted on the local bourse in recent months.

"RASLAG IPO ended up on its debut despite prevailing negative sentiment in the Market, with the PSE index downed by double digits, attributed to its aggressive expansion program wherein it will nearly double its current capacity within the year with the commercial operation," Pangan said.

RASLAG is owned and managed by the Nepumucenos of Pampanga, which have set up various commercial ventures around Central Luzon since 1922. Solar projects in the firm's pipeline are all based in Pampanga.

Luis Limlingan, head of sales at local brokerage Regina Capital, agreed with Pangan's assessment, citing an ongoing global trend surrounding renewables.

"In general, the global pressure to take a hard shift to renewables to ease the effects of climate are shifting the limelight to alternative sources of energy—boding well for RASLAG and its business model," Limlingan said in a Viber message.

RASLAG, which already has a solar-powered plant in Pampanga, listed in the PSE with the hopes of raising P700 million, wherein half of those proceeds will bankroll the continued expansion of its solar power project pipeline with the rest going into "pre-development work" for other solar projects and the rest for general corporate purposes.

The firm's 10.046 Megawatt peak solar plant has been commercially operating since February 2015. RASLAG's solar power plant was the third ground-mounted of its kind within the Philippines.

It has another project, RASLAG-3, which the company said would be operational in the first quarter of this year.