October 11 (SeeNews) - Newly-established Bulgarian company AE Solar Horizon will aim to raise 100 million euro ($97 million) by the end of 2023 and is already in talks with a number of European stock exchanges about a potential future initial public offering (IPO), Bulgarian venture capital firm New Vision 3 said.
AE Solar Horizon attracted initial funding of 3.5 million euro to build production plants for Tier-1 solar photovoltaic (PV) panels in Bulgaria, Greece and North Macedonia, New Vision 3, which participated in the fundraising, said in a press release on Monday.
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German renewable energy company AE Solar provided 2.5 million euro of the total amount, New Vision 3 came up with 1 million euro and Bulgarian engineering company ELIA contributed 500,000 euro,
AE Solar Horizon’s executive directors and co-founders, Ilko Yotzev and Evgeni Stefanov, also took part in the fundraising.
AE Solar Horizon intends to manufacture more than 3 GWp of solar PV panels at factories in Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Greece. The latest generation solar equipment will be able to generate both power and heating energy.
The Bulgarian company's first plant will be in Tetovo, North Macedonia. It is pencilled to be in operation by September 2023. By then, AE Solar Horizon's Bulgarian plant would already be under construction. The location of the plant to be built in Greece will also have been selected by then.
As part of its expansion, AE Solar Horizon will also partner with universities close to the plants to promote hands-on education of potential future engineers and specialists.
Germany-based AE Solar, which has 15 years of experience in solar research, development, production and sales, already operates in China, Georgia and Turkey. In late 2021, the German company said it plans to invest 150 million euro in a solar panel factory near the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv.
AE Solar had not returned a request for more information on its ownership of AE Solar and investment plans in Bulgaria by the time of publication.
Bulgaria has received request to connect to the grid renewable energy projects with 28,000 MW of total capacity, the chairman of the Bulgarian energy regulator said in a statement last week. By 2030, Bulgaria aims to cover 27% of its energy consumption through renewable sources.
Last month, North Macedonia's PiKCELL Group announced it will team up with AE Solar to build a PV panels factory in Tetovo.
($ = 1.03039 euro)