By Lenie Lectura - March 12, 2019
AC Energy Inc., the power arm of
conglomerate Ayala Corp., is eyeing to sign financial closing agreements for
renewable power projects worth $1 billion over the next 12-18 months.
These power projects have a total
capacity of about 800 megawatts (MW). These are located in Australia, Vietnam
and in the Philippines.
“In Australia, we are hoping to get
financial close for the first half of our 700-MW solar project, so call it 350
MW. For Vietnam, I think we are hoping to do another, probably around 400 to
500 MW of wind. We are also hoping to do in the Philippines over 100 MW of
solar. All in all, that’s about 800 MW that we’re hoping to reach financial
close in the next 12 to 18 months across these three markets,” said AC
Energy President Eric Francia.
Of the estimated $1-billion project
cost, Francia said the debt component could reach over $600 million to $700
million. “Not all of that is equity, there’s debt too. Approximately, debt
is over $600 million to $700 million and equity is $300 [million]to $400
million. A lot of the equity from the green bond can go there,” said Francia.
He said $410 million worth of green
bonds were raised. AC Energy said its green bond framework sets out
well-defined guidelines for the use of proceeds for renewable-energy projects,
with comprehensive monitoring and reporting commitments.
“Once we are successful in
deploying that, I can argue that it would be the primary use of the green
bonds. Those 800 MW will basically account for majority, if not all the green
bond usage. The green bond can also finance some of the past green
projects,” he said.
AC Energy has acquired a
50-percent stake in UPC Renewables Australia, which is developing the
1,000-MW Robbins Island and Jims Plain wind projects in North West Tasmania and
the 600-MW New England Solar Farm located near Uralla in New South Wales.
The Australian firm also has a
pipeline of 3,000-MW renewable-energy project developments located in New South
Wales, Tasmania and Victoria. The overseas investment reached $230 million. Of
this, $30 million was allocated for the 50-percent stake, while the remaining
$200 million will be used to fund project equity. AC Energy has also formed
partnerships abroad to develop wind power projects in Vietnam.
In November last year,
it acquired a 25-percent stake in Blue Circle Pte. Ltd., a Singapore-based
wind developer. They will jointly develop, construct, own and operate the
latter’s pipeline of around 1,500 MW of wind projects across Southeast Asia,
primarily Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and Cambodia.
They will initially start with
100 MW to 200 MW of wind projects in Vietnam where Blue Circle has 700 MW of
wind power projects there.
AC Energy also formed a platform
company with AMI Renewables in 2017 to build renewable-energy plants in
Vietnam, including the 352-MW Quang Binh wind project.
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