Metrobank’s power unit may go public next year

Business World Online 

Posted on July 15, 2012 10:54:12 PM

GLOBAL Business Power Corp., the power arm of the Metrobank Group, could go public next year in a bid to augment expansion plans.

Its parent firm, GT Capital Holdings, Inc., was listed just this year.

“It is a question of timing for our initial public offer (IPO) but if the market situation is good, maybe we will do the offer sometime next year,” Global Business Power President Arthur N. Aguilar told reporters last Friday.

“GT Capital has just finished [its IPO] so by the time we are ready to list we will have an expansion program that’s already clear.”

Global Business Power is the parent firm of Cebu Energy Development Corp., Toledo Power Co. and Panay Energy Development Corp. It owns and operates, among others, the 246-megawatt (MW) coal-fired Toledo plant in Cebu, a 164-MW coal-fired plant in Iloilo and a 40-MW diesel plant that provides power to Carmen Copper Corp.

Mr. Aguilar said Global Business Power already underwent a due diligence process when GT Capital was staging its IPO, “so we already have the governance systems.” He added that the company just needed to study market indications, its need for expansion funds and “how it fits into our group strategy”.

Global Business Power could follow San Miguel Corp.’s SMC Global Power Holdings Corp., which in May announced its intention to push through with an IPO next year. --E. N. J. David   source