Caraga Renewable Power eyes listing

MANILA, Philippines - Independent oil company Eastern Petroleum Corp. plans to list unit Caraga Renewable Power Corp. in the local bourse to raise funds for more investments in the power sector.

In an interview, Eastern Petroleum chairman Fernando Martinez said the firm is proceeding with its planned initial public offering (IPO), but would list subsidiary Caraga Renewable instead of parent firm Eastern Petroleum.

Martinez declined to disclose the amount it hopes to raise but said the company is now working on the documentation for the planned listing.

Martinez told The STAR the company planned to go public by the fourth quarter of this year.

Caraga Renewable was incorporated by Eastern Petroleum to serve as its corporate vehicle for its power generation venture.

For its initial project, the firm is putting up a 23.5-megawatt (MW) biomass facility in Agusan de Sur which would require an investment of about $100 million.

Martinez said the project would be undertaken with a foreign partner which would inject 40 percent equity and technology expertise into the project.

“We are finalizing with some interested foreign partners. The good thing is that we are aggressively in the radar of European investors when it comes to energy,” he said.

The biomass facility will source its feedstock requirements from a 10,000-hectare industrial tree plantation in the province.