Ayala unit open to bigger stake in GN Power

MANILA, Philippines - AC Energy Holdings Inc., the power subsidiary of the Ayala Group, is open to acquiring a bigger stake in GN Power Mariveles Coal Plant Co., a 600-megawatt coal-fired facility that started operations in May, its top official said.

The company recently entered into an agreement to acquire a 20 percent stake in GN Power but AC Energy president Eric Francia said if the majority owner of GN Power decides to sell the company is open to acquiring a bigger stake in the plant.

“It really depends. The majority stake is owned by Sithe Global (Power LLC) of the Blackstone Group. At some point, they might exit being a private equity fund and we’ll probably look at that and the terms and conditions,” Francia told reporters yesterday on the sidelines of the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines (EJAP)-ING forum.

Francia said AC Energy hopes to close the deal for the 20 percent stake before the end of the year.

“Hopefully within the year. Hopefully it would be sooner rather than later,” he said when asked when the company expects to finalize the agreement.

He also expressed hopes the power plant would soon commence commercial operations.

“Right now it’s running but they’re still doing some performance tests,” he said.

Parent firm Ayala Corp. earlier said it is investing roughly $1 billion in power and infrastructure over the next five years. It has already committed $325 million in equity investments as it targets to assemble 1,000 megawatts of generation capacity from both renewable and conventional power assets.