By Juzel L. Danganan
MANILA, May 18 (PNA) — Aboitiz Power Corporation will secure the financing for the 68 Megawatt (MW) Hedcor Bukidnon Inc. hydro power plant and the 510 MW Therma Visayas Inc (TVI) coal fired power plant by the third quarter (Q3) of 2015.
“We are currently in the advanced stages of closing several finance packages for our newest greenfield power plant projects, including our 510 MW baseload plant in Toledo City, Cebu and our 68 MW Manolo Fortrich run-of-river hydropower plants in Bukidnon,” said Aboitiz Equity Venture Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Stephen Paradies during the Annual Stockholder’s Meeting held Monday at the Intercontinental Hotel in Makati City.
Aboitiz Power Corporation Chief Financing Officer (CFO) Manuel Lozano said the Manolo Fortrich hydro power plant will cost Php9-10 billion, while the TVI power plant will amount to Php34 billion.
Paradies said Aboitiz expects to close the financing deal by the third quarter of 2015, having secured lead arrangers already, namely Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) Capital Corporation or the Hedcor power project and First Metro Investment Corporation (FMIC) for TVI.
TVI had started construction last month, with an operations target of 2018.
Meanwhile, the Hedcor project will start construction within 2015, but aims to start operations by the end of 2017.
For 2015, Aboitiz Power projects its overall capacity to increase to 2,353 MW from 2,250 MW.
Aboitiz Power said it will be driven by the addition of the 8 MW from the Binga Hydro Power Plant, the commissioning of the 14 MW Sabangan hydro power plant and the 260 MW Davao coal fired power plant.
Aboitiz Power will allocate Php52 billion for its capital expenditures this year. (PNA)