Bulgarian solar photovoltaic (PV) equipment supplier AmonRa Energy [BUL:AMON] is in ongoing negotiations to acquire its main partner and distributor in Romania, in a push to expand its presence in country, founder and CEO Dimitar Beleliev told SeeNews on Thursday.
AmonRa Energy expects to establish a physical presence in Romania early next year and is currently choosing a location for its logistics centre, Beleliev told SeeNews in an emailed statement without naming the partner.
AmonRa works with 29 external installation companies in Romania, and in Bulgaria the company operates with 446 external installers and 7 distributors, according to information published by the Bulgarian Stock Exchange.
The Bulgarian company has achieved good results in Romania and expects that its activities in the country will soon generate around 20% of total sales, AmonRa’s chief executive added. The company’s sales came in at 27.2 million levs ($14.6 million/13.9 million levs) in the first half of 2023, its most recent interim financial report shows.
In addition, AmonRa Energy and one of its Bulgarian partner firms, Elprom Cerb, teamed up to acquire a plot within Shumen Industrial Park, in the northeast of the country. The project for the technical design and construction of a new base is underway, while AmonRa already leases and operates from a warehouse in Shumen.
“We hope to move into the new base within 12 months, which will serve not only as our operational base but also as a logistics centre,” Beleliev said, adding that the business is set to continue growing and adding value for shareholders.
In July, AmonRa shareholders approved the distribution of an annual dividend of 4.9 million levs, or 80% of the 2022 net profit of 6.1 million levs. Last month, AmonRa Energy said it will distribute an additional dividend of 861,537 levs from the 2022 net profit of its wholly-owned subsidiary Cerb Solar.
In early October, DiBel — AmonRa Energy’s majority shareholder co-headed by Beleliev — acquired further 21,416 shares in the PV equipment supplier, according to bourse filings published on Monday. Dibel, which owned 95.2% of AmonRa as of end-June, purchased 15,846 shares at 12.55 levs apiece and 5,570 shares at 12.50 levs apiece. AmonRa Energy has a total of 6,251,296 shares issued.
The solar industry supplier went public in November last year, raising over 3.1 million levs in what was the first initial public offering in Bulgaria’s solar industry.