Aboitiz ready to sell Aseagas

By Lenie Lectura – May 22, 2018
from Business Mirror

ABOITIZ Power Corp. (Aboitiz Power) is selling its 8.8-megawatt (MW) biomass power plant operated by its wholly owned subsidiary Aseagas Corp. (Aseagas).

“We are trying to sell it, everything, the whole thing. It’s a failed project,”  AboitizPower President and COO Antonio Moraza said.

The plant in Lian, Batangas ceased operations on November 24, 2017, due to the unavailability of the supply of organic-effluent wastewater from Absolut Distillers Inc. The company decided to shut down the plant in January this year.

The company has yet to receive offers from interested buyers, but said, “there are people who are smelling.”

Moraza said the plant would be sold at a discount. “Obviously, they are buying it at a big discount. Maybe with the discount, they can make it viable.”

AboitizPower said Aseagas has prepaid its outstanding loan with the Development Bank of the Philippines in the amount of P2.368 billion. On top of it, the company also invested equity of around P950 million for the biomass plant and has around P460 million in outstanding liabilities.

Thus, the total value affected as a result of the closure 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.

Aseagas is a subsidiary of AboitizPower, through Aboitiz Renewables Inc., its holding company for its investments in renewable energy.

AboitizPower is the holding company for the Aboitiz Group’s investments in power generation, distribution, and retail-electricity services.

Moraza said AboitizPower is still on track to add 500 MW of attributable capacity, mainly from baseload and hydropower plants in 2018, pushing the company closer to its 2020 target of 4,000-MW net attributable capacity.