September 15, 2017 By Victor V.
Saulon, Sub-Editor
ABOITIZ POWER Corp. is in the
advanced stage of preparing its bid for AES Corp.’s controlling stake in the
630-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant in Masinloc, Zambales, its top official
said.
“We’re studying (the AES asset).
It’s very advanced,” Antonio R. Moraza, AboitizPower president and chief
operating officer, told reporters on Wednesday night on the sidelines of a
media gathering.
In July, AES Corp. was reported to
be looking to sell its stake in the plant in a deal that potentially values the
asset at $1 billion, at least. The company is said to be unloading assets to
pay debts.
Although the company has not yet
reached a stage when it has placed a value for the Masinloc power plant, Mr.
Moraza remains interested.
“We’re interested,” he said. “If
it’s a power project in the Philippines, or if anything is for sale, we’re
interested.”
Mr. Moraza expects stiff competition
in bidding for the plant, saying there are more than 15 groups interested.
“It’s big, quite large… plus there’s
expansion potential. So I guess everybody is [interested],” he said. “Given the
size, even the international players would be [interested]… They want something
sizable.”
Asked about when he expects the bidding
to be completed, he said: “I’m under the impression before the end of the
year.”
Mr. Moraza also said that the
company would make the bid on its own, without a partner.
Separately, Erramon I. Aboitiz,
chief executive officer of AboitizPower, said: “I think AES is going through a
process, so I guess we have to wait for that and to hear from them.”
This year, AboitizPower expects to
finish the 68.8-MW Manolo Fortich hydro power plant in Bukidnon and the 8.5-MW
Maris Canal hydro project in Isabela through its subsidiary SN AboitizPower.
Together with partners, it is also
completing the 340-MW Therma Visayas, Inc. baseload power plant in Toledo, Cebu
and the 400-MW Pagbilao Energy Corp. plant expansion. It is commissioning an
8.8-MW biomass power plant in Lian, Batangas.
AboitizPower has one of the widest
portfolios of energy sources in the country. It has a significant array of
renewable power plants — geothermal, large hydro, run-of-river hydro, and solar
power plants.
The company operates a number of coal
power plants for baseload capacity and oil-fired power plants for reliable
peaking supply.
The company is pursuing projects in
coal, geothermal and biomass to meet its target of achieving 4,000-MW net
sellable capacity by 2020.
Shares in AboitizPower slipped 1.47%
or 60 centavos to P40.10 apiece on Thursday.
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