Alternergy gears up for capital raising

MANILA, Philippines — Alternergy Holdings Corp., the renewable energy company chaired by former energy secretary Vince Perez, is gearing up to raise capital to finance more renewable energy projects in its pipeline.

Alternergy, during its first special stockholders’ meeting secured, approval from its shareholders the reclassification of perpetual preferred shares in a bid to raise non-voting equity capital.

The reclassification of 1.48 billion preferred shares with a par value of P0.10 will be subdivided into two classifications.

These will be comprised of 1.181 billion perpetual preferred shares 1 and new 300 million non-voting perpetual preferred shares 2, also with par value of P0.10 per share.

The perpetual preferred shares 2 are broken down into three Series A, B and C of 100 million perpetual preferred shares per series.

“The reclassification of Alternergy’s perpetual preferred shares is in anticipation of our next capital raising exercise to fund our renewable projects,” Alternergy president Gerry Magbanua said.

“Our Green Perpetual Preferred Shares Program will allow Alternergy to access a wider base of institutional investors to broaden our sources of capital,” he said.

Alternergy has been undertaking corporate finance activities in recent weeks to secure capital for its project pipeline.

These include tapping three investment banks as lead arrangers to raise P12 billion project finance structure for its Tanay and Alabat wind power projects which the company won under the Green Energy Auction 2 of the Department of Energy.

The company’s board of directors also recently approved the reallocation of its initial public offering proceeds to accelerate the immediate development of its Tanay and Alabat wind projects.

Alternergy has entered into a lease contract with revenue-sharing agreement with the Rizal provincial government for the development of the 100-megawatt (MW) Tanay wind power project.

The long-term lease agreement covers 44 hectares of property over a 25-year period.

It also entitles rental income for the province for the use of the land and share in the revenue from energy generation.

Meanwhile, Alternergy’s shareholders likewise approved an increase in the company’s number of board seats from seven to nine directors.

Perez said the increase in the number of independent directors will broaden the diversity and breadth of expertise of Alternergy’s board.

“Alternergy espouses a culture of diversity in terms of experience, expertise, culture, age, gender and orientation. We believe diversity creates greater value to our company’s growth,” he said.

With the stockholders’ approval, the amendments of articles of incorporation is subject to regulatory approval by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

As part of Alternergy’s aggressive expansion plans, the company aims to develop up to 1,370 MW of additional wind, offshore wind, solar and run of river hydro projects in the next five years.