TransCo gets $100-M loan for expansion

State-run National Transmission Corp. (TransCo) is no longer debt-free, after it secured a $100 million loan to finance priority projects. Energy Secretary Raphael P. M. Lotilla said the transmission firm had secured the loan from Calyon, a global brokerage firm providing institutional clients with efficient access to financial and commodity markets around the world.

Lotilla said the loan will be used to finance TransCo’s priority projects in the medium term, including systems upgrade and expansion program.

When TransCo was created under Republic Act 9136 or Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) of 2001, all its debts were transferred to the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM).

TransCo’s 25-year concession contract is up for public bidding in December this year.

The transmission firm is basically getting funds to finance its operations from its revenues,  and from National Power Corp. and PSALM, being its overall overseer.

TransCo has assumed the electrical transmission functions of Napocor in the major Philippine grids.

Since it inception, TransCo has been relying on past loans to finance its projects as it was supposed to be privatized shortly after the EPIRA was passed in 2001.

TransCo, in fact, has been setting aside some of its big projects such as the Leyte-Mindanao interconnection project to wait for the entry of the new concessionaires, which is expected to pour in new capital for the company’s upgrading and modernization projects.

For 2006, TransCo posted a net income of P19.4 billion up 20 percent from P16.1 billion the previous year.

The National Government is hoping to raise some $3 billion revenues from the concession contract bidding of TransCo.