Danessa Rivera (The Philippine Star)
- May 23, 2018 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — Aboitiz Power
Corp. is selling its 8.8-megawatt (MW) biomass power plant in Lian, Batangas
after it decided to stop operating the facility earlier this year.
“That’s something we are trying to
sell,” AboitizPower president and COO Antonio Moraza said.
Describing it as a failed project,
Moraza said the company would sell the facility at a discount to attract
buyers.
“Frankly, I don’t know but obviously
they are buying it at a big discount. Maybe with the discount, they can make it
viable,” he said.
The 8.8-MW biomass plant is the
group’s first biomass project, which was supposed to start commercially
operating in the second quarter.
It is under Aseagas Corp., a
wholly-owned subsidiary of AboitizPower through Aboitiz Renewables Inc., its
holding company for its investments in renewable energy.
Aseagas permanently ceased
operations of the facility last January. Before that, the plant was previously
placed on extended shutdown toward the end of 2017 due to lack of feedstock.
Company officials had previously
said Aseagas had been encountering issues in getting the plant out of
commissioning phase since operating a biomass project is a new territory for
the Aboitiz group.
Aseagas has settled its outstanding
loan with the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) amounting to P2.368
billion.
On top of the loan, the company also
invested an equity of around P950 million for the biomass plant and has around
P460 million in outstanding liabilities.
As a result of the closure, total
value affected is estimated to be at P3.7 billion, which represents Aseagas
invested equity of P3.45 billion and the company’s estimated remaining
obligations of around P250 million.
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