Friday, June 10, 2011

Alsons raising $175m to finance power business

Manila Standard Today
by Jenniffer B. Austria
Alsons Consolidated Resources Inc. of the Alcantara group is raising $175 million (approximately P7.5 billion) through a share sale to finance the expansion of its power business.
Alsons said in a disclosure to the stock exchange Thursday its board approved the placement of shares worth $175 million, inclusive of overallotment, primarily to investors overseas.
Alsons Corp. and Alsons Development and Investments Corp., major shareholders of the company, will offer their shares to investors. The selling shareholders will also subscribe to the same number of shares.
CLSA Limited is the sole global coordinator, bookrunner and stabilization agent for the proposed transaction.
“The number of offer shares and the final selling price will be determined following the book building exercise,” the company said.
The company earlier reported that it was investing $500 million between 2011 and 2013 to finance the construction of two of the three coal-fired plants being proposed in Sarangani and Zamboanga del Sur in Mindanao.
Alsons said it was focusing on expanding the energy business starting this year and was finalizing the financing for the first coal-fired power plant slated for groundbreaking this year.
The first power plant is expected to be in commercial operations starting 2014.
Alsons said its board also approved the direct ownership of Sarangani Energy Corp,, which is presently owned by a subsidiary, to be used as the corporate vehicle that will own and operate the new power plant.
The board also approved the direct ownership of Kamanga Agro-Industrial Ecozone Development Corp., which will own and operate the industrial park where the power plant will be located.
Alsons said the board also approved a dividend policy in which 20 percent of the previous year’s unappropriated net income would be made available as regular dividends.
Alsons is an investment holding company focused on energy and power, property development and mining.
The company operates the investment energy and power business through two holding firms—Conal Holdings Corp. and Alsing Power Holdings Inc. It has a wholly-owned subsidiary, Alsons Power International Ltd., which handles the development of the power plant projects.

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