AEV seeks funds for $1.52-B projects

MANILA, Philippines - Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. (AEV) expects to secure the funding requirements for two key power generation projects worth $1.52 billion as early as next month.

The amount will fund the construction of a new coal-fired power plant in Mindanao and expansion of a coal power project in Luzon.

“For Therma South Inc. (TSI), we hope to close (the financing) by June. We also want to close the Pagbilao deal,” AEV chief finance officer Stephen Paradies said in an interview.

“In our capital expenditure program which are basically power plants, the idea is to get 70 percent from project financing,” AEV president and CEO Erramon Aboitiz said in a separate interview.

AEV’s power generation arm Aboitiz Power Corp. (AP), through subsidiary TSI, is putting up a 300-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant in Davao worth $720 million.

AP is also into the $800-million, 400-MW expansion of the Pagbilao coal power project in Quezon. Subsidiary Therma Luzon Inc., which manages the output of the 735-MW Pagbilao coal fired plant, has a joint venture deal with Japanese power producer TeaM Energy Philippines Corp. for the expansion.

Aboitiz said the company is focused on adding 1,850 MW of generating capacity in the next five years that will require P190 billion in capital expenditures.

“We’ve actually been advancing some of the money for some of the projects like the one TSI in Davao,” Aboitiz said.

In July, TSI signed a $546-million deal with local and foreign contractors for the Davao facility that will be completed in June 2015.

In the first quarter, cash and cash equivalents of AEV stood at P30.2 billion, 10 percent lower than P33.7 billion as of end-2012.

Consolidated liabilities reached P86.7 billion while equity attributable to equityholders of the parent firm rose eigth percent to P98.3 billion.

In the first quarter, AEV’s consolidated net income hit P6.8 billion, up 17 percent from a year ago. Core income, which strips off non-recurring gains or losses, inched up 1.3 percent to P5.5 billion.