Ayala, Rebisco, A Brown team up for P12.5-B coal proj

MANILA, Philippines - Units of the Ayala conglomerate, the Rebisco Group and listed A. Brown Co. Inc. will co-own a landholding firm in line with a P12.5-billion coal power project in Western Visayas.

In a disclosure, A. Brown said it transferred all its shares in Panay Consolidated Land Holdings Corp. to subsidiary Palm Thermal Consolidated Holdings Corp.

Panay Consolidated is the land owner of the site that will be used for the 135-megawatt (MW) circulating fluidized bed thermal coal-fired power plant in Iloilo.

AC Energy, Jin Navitas Resource Inc. of Rebisco Biscuit Corp. and Palm Thermal all bought the remaining nine million shares of Panay Consolidated.

Hence, Panay Consolidated is now 40 percent owned by AC Energy, 30 percent by Panay Thermal and 30 percent by Jin Navitas.

The consortium, through Palm Concepcion Power Corp., is looking at completing the construction of the P12.5-billion, 135-MW power facility in 2016.

In September, Ayala-led AC Energy announced it will join A. Brown for the coal power plant, which will break ground within this year.

Jin Navitas, led by Asia United Bank Corp. chairman and Rebisco treasurer Jacinto Ng Jr., joined the project last month.

The power project includes a second 135-MW facility for future development.

AC Energy targets to be a major contributor in the Ayala Corp. conglomerate, which is into property (Ayala Land Inc.), banking (Bank of the Philippine Islands), telecommunications (Globe Telecom Inc.) and utilities (Manila Water Co. Inc.).

A. Brown - the investment arm of businessman Walter W. Brown - raised P720 million in new funds from a top-up placement of shares to select institutional investors and qualified buyers in October.

Apart from power generation, A. Brown manages a 2,200-hectare palm plantation in Mindanao, with its own milling operations and an oil processing plant scheduled to be operational in the first quarter of 2013.

The company is planning to build up its plantation area to 10,000 hectares by 2020.