SMC power unit sets $1-billion share sale

Business Mirror

22 Jan 2014 

 

Written by Lenie Lectura

DIVERSIFIED conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) may soon have $1 billion in its war chest to finance new investments.

This, as SMC Global Power Holdings Corp. is eyeing proceeds of up to $1 billion from the planned sale of a 49-percent stake to interested investors and from a public offering which will happen within this quarter.

“It looks like we will try to look somewhere to invest the proceeds,” said SMC President Ramon S. Ang on Wednesday at the sidelines of the groundbreaking ceremony for the Skyway Stage 3 project of the company-backed Citra Metro Manila Tollways Corp. (CMMTC). 

When asked if SMC Global Power would partly use the proceeds to fund its projects in Bataan and Davao  del Sur, Ang said, “there is funding for that already.” 

SMC Global has tapped Standard Chartered Bank as the financial advisor for the planned share sale, Ang said.

“We will [hold] the IPO [initial public offering] ASAP [as soon as possible]. We are pushing for that,” he replied when asked if the IPO will be conducted within the first quarter. 

SMC Global, Ang explained, will also embark on an equity sale to cornerstone investors aside from the public listing. 

“We hope to do a 49-percent deal with somebody. Ten percent will be IPO and 39 percent [will be sold to] the investor. We are in talks with several foreign and local investors,” Ang said last year. 

SMC Global has long been planning to hold a public offering but this was shelved due to unfavorable market conditions.

SMC’s unit San Miguel Consolidated Power Corp. (SMCP) will put up a 900 megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant in Limay, Bataan and a 1,200MW coal power facility in plant in Malita, Davao del Sur. 

There is insufficient generating capacity in Mindanao at the moment, which is why it is suffering from intermittent power outages. SMC hopes to ease the worsening power supply crisis on the electricity-starved island. 

SMC has become one of the largest independent power-generation companies in the country with an installed capacity of 2,545 MW.

The company has a 17-percent share of the power supply in the national grid and 23-percent share in the Luzon grid as of end 2012. It plans to install a total of 3,000 MW of new capacity over the long term with new power plants that will be using clean coal technology.   source