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Johannesburg - London and now Johannesburg-listed energy company Independent Power SA (Ipsa) gained 4.5% on its first day of trade on the Alternative Exchange (Altx).
The company listed at R5.62 a share, and closed at R5.85, with 44 836 shares changing hands.
Ipsa received irrevocable commitments from institutional investors for almost all the 5.5m shares - equating to 10% of its share capital - before it listed on the AltX, the company said in a pre-listing statement.
At Thursday's closing price, the company has a market capitalisation of R354m.
Coega power station on the cards
Ipsa was created in 2005 to develop, own and manage power plants in southern Africa.
The company says the local listing will give it access to capital for growth and help introduce empowerment partners into the business.
Ipsa's primary listing is on London's Alternative Investment Market (Aim), the London Stock Exchange's market for smaller, growing companies.
The company is currently discussing a $540-$600m project with South Africa's national power regulator Eskom to build a 1 600 megawatt power station at Coega.
The company is hoping to wrap up agreements for the Coega project soon; Around 1 000 megawatts of capacity could come online by the first quarter of 2008 if all regulatory hurdles are achieved on schedule.
At full capacity, the company will have pushed this up to 1 600Mw but that could be about three years later.
There is potential for additional increases up to 3 200Mw at a later stage, says CEO Peter Earl.
Courting empowerment partners
Earl says the company has courted as many as ten potential empowerment partners in the past and will look at introducing them into the company as its numerous power station projects come on stream.
Construction of the company's first project in Newcastle is 70% complete, but Earl says the company will probably wait for it to be 100% complete before introducing a black empowerment partner.
At both the Newcastle and Coega projects, the company has been able to fast-track construction to about 15 months, because it has purchased existing plant and turbines that have been imported to the site.
Earl says that the turbines at Coega will be those that have been constructed under past agreements with other companies that have since been cancelled.
The power at Coega would go towards the two smelters that are being investigated at the site as well as a supply for Cape Town, says Earl