Ayala sells stake in Luzon Wind Energy to Mitsubishi Corp. unit

Business Mirror
by Lenie Lectura - September 3, 2015

Ayala International Holdings, Ltd., sold its stake in Luzon Wind Energy Holdings B.V. (Luzon Wind) to a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corp.

“On September 2, 2015, Ayala International Holdings, Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Ayala Corporation, sold its ownership interest in Luzon Wind Energy Holdings B.V. [Luzon Wind] to DGA NLREC B.V.,” the conglomerate said in a disclosure on Thursday.

Ayala Corp. and Mitsubishi Corp. have been partners since 1974, when they signed an agreement to jointly explore investment opportunities in the Philippines.

Luzon Wind owns part of Ayala Corp.’s stake in North Luzon Renewable Energy Corp. (NLREC), being held by its wholly owned subsidiary AC Energy Holdings Inc.

After the sale of Luzon Wind, the power subsidiary of Ayala Corp. still remains the largest owner of NLREC with an economic stake of approximately 36 percent.

NLREC owns and operates an 81-MW wind farm in Barangay Caparispisan, Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte.

AC Energy is also involved in another renewable energy project-the 52-MW wind farm in Bagui, Ilocos Norte under Northwind Power Development Corp. (Northwind).

“We hope to further expand our renewable-energy portfolio and help increase the share of renewables in the country’s energy mix,” AC Energy President John Eric Francia said.

Since 2011 Ayala has committed over $700 million in equity to develop conventional and renewable energy sources. AC Energy has currently assembled over 700 MW of attributable capacity, putting the company closer toward achieving its target of assembling over 1,000 MW of attributable capacity from power plants by 2016.

The company earlier dropped plans to develop solar power projects, but Francia said the company remains on the lookout for opportunities.

“We shelved our solar project in Mindanao but we continue to monitor the developments in solar, particularly the drop in solar power panel prices.

We can’t ignore these developments. We continue to study the prospects basically for our medium to long-term plans,” Francia added. source