Lodestone Energy completes NZX’s first listing built entirely around utility-scale solar in New Zealand

Shares were priced at NZ$2.25 each, giving Lodestone a market capitalisation of NZ$440 million and an enterprise value of NZ$513.6 million. The company said around 10,000 new shareholders took part, with almost half of the capital coming from retail investors and the rest from institutional investors and existing shareholders, whose holdings are subject to escrow.

Lodestone had sought between NZ$75 million and NZ$100 million through the offer, which closed on 14 October. Its shares began trading under the code LOD at midday on 22 October.

Law firm Simpson Grierson, which advised joint lead managers Forsyth Barr and Jarden, said the float is the NZX’s first listing built entirely around utility-scale solar. It is also the exchange’s first sizeable IPO since Winton Land listed in 2021.

“Having around 10,000 investors back Lodestone is pretty special,” said Gary Holden, Lodestone’s founder and managing director.

The company builds and operates its own plants and sells the output directly to businesses through what it calls a “virtual rooftop” contract. The Warehouse Group signed a long-term agreement in 2023 covering more than 260 sites, and Inghams is also a customer, while Briscoe Group and Auckland food retailer Farro signed supply agreements earlier this month.

Lodestone has also started selling electricity to households and small businesses in Hawke’s Bay through its EASY Plan. Holden tied that offer to the plant the company began building in Central Hawke’s Bay in July, saying it would supply locally generated electricity to the region.

Holden has previously called for more private investment in New Zealand’s solar sector. When Lodestone connected its Te Herenga o Te Rā plant to the national grid in January 2025, he said policy and market settings needed to encourage investor capital into the sector and speed up development.

The company is targeting 16 to 18 operating plants by the 2032 financial year, adding two to three each year.

Five operating plants and a sixth under construction

The 42MW Te Herenga o Te Rā plant in the Bay of Plenty was the first solar PV plant in New Zealand connected directly to the national grid owned by Transpower.

Months after energisation, the site kept operating through extreme flooding in the Waiotahe Valley, after the company raised its inverter stations above ground and drove piles more than four metres deep.

Lodestone’s other operating plants are the 33MW Kohirā plant in Kaitaia, the 32MW Rangitaiki plant in the Bay of Plenty, a 32MW plant at Whitianga on the Coromandel Peninsula and the 27.7MW Clandeboye plant in Canterbury, its first on the South Island.

The sixth is in Central Hawke’s Bay. Lodestone and Centralines, a consumer-owned lines company serving the district, formed a 50:50 joint venture to invest NZ$50 million in a 31.5MWp plant at Ongaonga on the Ruataniwha Plains.

ASB Bank backed the project through financial close, and the partners expect it to begin operations in 2027.

New Zealand’s grid relies heavily on hydropower, and a dry 2024 cut hydro output and pushed up wholesale prices. Solar is growing from a small base: government data showed solar generation rose 56% year-on-year to a record 242GWh in the second quarter of 2026, overtaking coal on a rolling 12-month basis for the first time.

Larger solar PV power plants are also arriving. Harmony Energy New Zealand and Igneo Infrastructure Partners energised the 202MWp Tauhei plant in Waikato in July, which at the time was regarded as the country’s largest solar PV installation.

However, supply security remains a concern. Transpower’s draft security of supply assessment warned of a 698GWh winter energy shortfall by 2031, even if all committed and consented projects are delivered on time.

“New Zealand is going to need a lot more electricity, and we see a real opportunity for solar to help meet that demand,” Holden concluded.