By Lawrence Agcaoili (The
Philippine Star) | Updated January 28, 2016 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines – Ayala-led Bank
of the Philippine Islands is spearheading a consortium of banks raising $525
million for AES Philippines to partially bankroll the construction of a power
plant in Masinloc, Zambales.
Reginaldo Cariaso, officer-in-charge
and managing director of BPI Capital Corp., said the transaction underscores
BPI’s commitment to finance and pursue projects that create a strong impact on
sectors that are vital to the country’s economic growth.
The new 330-megawatt (MW) super
critical coal power plant is envisioned to supply power to at least seven
electric cooperatives in northern Philippines for 20 years.
“We are happy to enable private
sector operators such as AES Philippines to play a bigger role in delivering
high-quality energy installations to address the increasing demand for
electricity in the country,” Cariaso said.
BPI Capital acted as sole issue
coordinator and one of the joint lead arrangers for the transaction.
The facility is denominated in US
dollars and has a tenor of 15 years, inclusive of an up to four-year grace
period during construction and will be made available in fixed and floating
interest rate tranches.
The fixed-interest rate tranche will
be subject to a re-pricing on the eighth year anniversary to set the interest
rate for the remaining seven years.
The other joint lead arrangers for
the fund raising activity included SB Capital Investment Corp., RCBC Capital
Corp., and PNB Capital Corp.
This facility followed a
$500-million refinancing in 2013, also provided entirely by local banks, in
support of the rehabilitation and modernization of the original 600-MW facility
in Masinloc, Zambales.
American global power developer and
operator at AES Corp. owns 50.55 percent of AES Philippines. Other shareholders
are independent power producer Electricity Generating Public Co. Ltd. (EGCO)
Group of Thailand with 41.35 percent and International Finance Corp. (IFC) with
8.1 percent.
The existing 600-MW power plant in
Zambales is one of the largest base-load clean-coal power plants in the
Philippines.
The partners intend to use the
combined Masinloc platform as their vehicle for growth in the Philippines. —
With Ted Torres
No comments:
Post a Comment