Trans-Asia acquires P420 M power barges from PSALM

By Danessa O. Rivera (The Philippine Star) | Updated July 9, 2015 - 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines - Listed Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corp., the power generation arm of the Phinma Group, has completed the acquisition of three state-owned power barges for P420 million following a negotiated deal with the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM).

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Trans-Asia said PSALM has officially turned over the power barges to the company yesterday.

In a separate statement, PSALM said the turnover was highlighted by the signing of the joint certificate of turnover of the power barges by PSALM officer-in-charge Lourdes S. Alzona and Trans-Asia senior vice president for Power Business Rizalino G. Santos.

“Finally, after much ado, we have come to this final stage in the sale of (Power Barges) 101 to 103. As the firm tasked by law to privatize the power assets of the National Power Corp. (NPC), we are delighted to see that we are once again moving forward with our mandate, and we are indeed very grateful to Trans-Asia for making this possible,” Alzona said.

The sale involved power barges 101 and 102 located at Bo. Obrero, Iloilo Cityland power barge 103 stationed at Keppel Subic Shipyard Inc. in Subic, Zambales.

Each barge is a 32-megawatt (MW) barge-mounted bunker-fired diesel generating power station with four eight-MW identical Hitachi-Sulzer diesel generator units.

Trans-Asia said the acquisition of the power barges will add to its growing power generation portfolio, which already includes diesel power plants in Norzagaray Bulacan, Bacnotan, La Union, Guimaras and Subic; the 52-MW wind farm in San Lorenzo, Guimaras; the Maibarara Geothermal plant; and a portion of the Sem-Calaca power plant; a 40-MW capacity from the Unified Leyte Geothermal Power Plant.

It also owns the 135-MW coal power plant in Calaca, Batangas through South Luzon Thermal Energy Corp., a 50-50 joint venture with AC Energy Holdings Inc.

PSALM, the government agency tasked to privatize state-owned power assets, bid out power barges 101 to 103 in October 2013, with SPC Island Power Corp. (SIPC) emerging as the highest bidder with an offer of P545.89 million.

However, SIPC decided to terminate the asset purchase agreement with PSALM after power barge 103 was damaged severely due to the onslaught of Typhoon Yolanda in November 2013.

Instead of conducting another round of auction, PSALM decided to negotiate with Trans-Asia, the second highest bidder.

Both concluded the sale of the power barges after signing a memorandum of agreement in January 2015.

PSALM offered the barges in two packages consisting of power barges 101 to 103 for the first package and PB 104 as the second package. The latter was declared a failure as bidders failed to submit the requirements. source