Pantheon Infrastructure targets £250m in issue of new C shares – Pantheon Infrastructure (PINT) has announced plans to launch an issue of new C Shares seeking to raise £250m via a placing, an offer for subscription and an intermediaries offer at an issue price of 100 pence per C Share.
This comes as the company has made substantial capital deployment since its launch in November 2021, across 10 infrastructure investments. PINT has a further four investments, for a total investment consideration of approximately £170m, in advanced due diligence which are expected to enter legal closing by the end of October 2022. Meanwhile, an extensive pipeline has also been identified.
The board believes it is in the interests of the company and shareholders to issue further equity to take advantage of the pipeline of attractive potential investment opportunities that Pantheon continues to find. The issue would:
- Enable the company to acquire further attractive private infrastructure assets alongside leading sponsors and institutional investors, including those in advanced due diligence and preliminary due diligence, thus enhancing the potential for portfolio diversification;
- Increase the size of the company, which will help make it more attractive to a wider investor base and increase the scope for institutional and retail investment;
- Reduce the total expense ratio of PINT as the fixed operating costs would be spread over a larger equity capital base; and
- Secondary market liquidity in the ordinary shares should be enhanced on conversion of the C Shares through having a greater number of ordinary shares in issue.
Furthermore, the board believes the use of C Shares ensures that ordinary shareholders do not suffer the potential for cash drag pending investment of the net proceeds of the C Shares. In addition, the costs of the Issue will be borne entirely by the C Shares.
The manager has agreed that no annual management fee shall accrue or be charged on the undeployed cash net proceeds of the issue and, if applicable, an additional placing until such time as 75% or more of such net proceeds have been deployed.
Vagn Sørensen, chairman of the Company, said:
“We are delighted with the portfolio that has been assembled for the Company to date, comprising a diversified array of infrastructure businesses across sub-sectors and geographies. Investment in infrastructure remains critical to revitalise regional economies, improve access to opportunities for all in society and support the transition to net zero. Given the supportive infrastructure investment environment and attractiveness of the opportunity set, we are pleased to launch a new capital raise.”
Richard Sem, Partner at Pantheon, PINT’s manager, added:
“The volume and quality of infrastructure investment opportunities that we are reviewing at Pantheon continues to grow, allowing us to choose attractive transactions that we anticipate will provide the best risk adjusted returns for PINT. The defensive characteristics of core infrastructure, typically including long-term contracts, inflation protection and stable cash-flow generation makes these investments especially attractive in the current uncertain environment”.
PINT : Pantheon Infrastructure targets £250m in issue of new C shares