By Danessa Rivera (The
Philippine Star) | Updated October 5, 2016 - 12:00am
Buys
out Blackstone stake in GNPower coal-fired facilities
MANILA, Philippines – The Aboitiz
Group is acquiring beneficial interests from Blackstone Group-affiliated
investment funds in two GNPower coal-fired power plants in Bataan for
about $1.2 billion to meet its 4,000-megawatt (MW) capacity target in the next
five years.
Aboitiz Power Corp. announced
yesterday its wholly owned unit Therma Power Inc. has finalized the purchase
and sale agreements for the acquisition of the partnership interests held by
affiliated investment funds of The Blackstone Group – World Power
Holdings L.P. and Sithe Global Power L.P. – in GNPower Mariveles Coal Plant
Ltd. Co. and GNPower Dinginin Ltd. Co., respectively.
Therma Power is the Aboitiz Group’s
holding firm for investments in non-renewable energy.
Under the deal, Therma Power will
hold an indirect effective interest of 66.1 percent in GNPower Mariveles and 40
percent in GNPower Dinginin for $1.197 billion, subject to certain adjustments
and approvals by the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) and the Board of
Investments (BOI).
The company has already filed a
notification with the PCC, the country’s anti-trust body.
“We have to go through PCC for
clearance which we hope will not be a problem,” AboitizPower president and COO
Antonio Moraza said in a text message.
AboitizPower said the acquisition
cost would be funded by a combination of internally-generated cash and financing
from foreign banks.
It said it has signed a facility
agreement with The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd., DBS Bank Ltd., The
Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. Ltd., Maybank Kim Eng Securities Pte. Ltd.,
Mizuho Bank, Ltd. and Standard Chartered Bank for a loan of up to $650 million
to partially fund the purchase.
GNPower Mariveles owns the 604-MW
subcritical coal-fired power plant which started operations in 2014.
Meanwhile, GNPower Dinginin is the
project company for the proposed 2x668-MW supercritical coal-fired power
project also in Bataan. The first unit is currently under development and is
targeted for commercial operations by 2019.
AboitizPower CEO Erramon Aboitiz
said the acquisition of the plants would increase the attributable capacity of
AboitizPower, with the possibility of further expansion, to meet its target of
4,000 MW by 2020.
“We consider this acquisition very
strategic as it gives us immediate earnings from the operating asset and
incremental capacity in the coming years from the plant under construction and
its expansion. We are likewise looking forward to the completion of our
pipeline projects, which include more baseload capacity as well as renewables,”
he said.
AboitizPower has investments in
various thermal and renewable power generating facilities with a total net
sellable capacity of 3,350 MW with its partners.
AboitizPower was among the bidders
for Sithe’s sale, which was launched earlier this year. Other bidders included
a group comprising Kuwait Investment Authority, private equity firm CVC Capital
Partners, a consortium of Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte, Malaysian
power company Malakoff Corp. and an infrastructure investment fund managed by
Macquarie Group Ltd., Bloomberg said in a report.
Other partners in both plants are AC
Energy Holdings Inc. of the Ayala Group and US-based GN Power, owned by
Nauruan-American firm Power Partners Ltd. Co.
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