By Alena Mae S. Flores
Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. is expected to end the year with an additional cash flow of $2 billion, which it plans to use to pay debts, the company’s president said Tuesday.
PSALM, the agency in charge of managing the assets and liabilities of state-owned National Power Corp., is expected to receive the full payment from the sale of the 218-megawatt Angat hydropower plant in Bulacan by November.
K-Water Resources Corp. of Korea acquired the Angat hydropower plant from the government for $440.88 million in 2010.
K-Water and PSALM recently signed a certificate of effectivity that paved the way for the turnover of the asset to K-Water.
“We issued the certificate for effectivity for Angat. They have 270 days to pay under the COE but they indicated verbally that within 90 days, they will pay the full amount so that’s additional… $500 million,” PSALM president Emmanuel Ledesma Jr. told reporters at the sidelines of a budget hearing at the Senate.
Ledesma said K-water committed to pay by November while PSALM recently received the $1.5-billion prepayment of concession fees from National Grid Corporation of the Philippines.
“That’s a lot of money coming in for PSALM,” Ledesma said.
Ledesma said talks with National Grid, operator of the country’s power transmission highway, over the prepayment of the remaining $1.2 billion in concession fees were ongoing.
“I asked if [National Grid was] interested in prepaying the remaining $1.2 billion. They said they are open to discussing,” he said. “I don’t think it [additional prepayment] will happen this year. Next year, maybe.”
Ledesma said PSALM was also in talks with San Miguel Corp. and Aboitiz Power Corp. to prepay their remaining fees to the government amounting to around $3 billion.
“San Miguel has roughly $2 billion and Aboitiz has $1 billion. So we are exploring. We’re in discussions and there’s a chance we may move forward,” Ledesma said.
Ledesma said PSALM would use the proceeds from the prepayment to pay maturing debts and the rest for capital expenditures. source
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