AC Energy acquires shares of UPC-AC

BY LORENZ S. MARASIGAN – MARCH 22, 2022
from Business Mirror

AC Energy Corp. has completed the first tranche of its planned full acquisition of renewable energy (RE) platform UPC-AC Renewables Australia.

In three separate disclosures to the stock exchange, the Ayala-led energy company said UPC Renewables Asia Pacific Holdings Pte. Ltd. (UPCAPH) and UPC-AC Renewables CEO Anton Rohner have signed separate instruments of transfer to allow AC Renewables International Pte. Ltd. (ACRI) to gain UPCAPH’s 7,150 ordinary shares in UPC-AC Energy Australia (HK) Ltd. and Rohner’s 1,000,054 ordinary class B shares in UPC Australia (HK) Ltd.

ACRI paid a total of $87.7 million for this tranche.

“Completion of the second tranche of the acquisition is expected to occur within the first quarter of 2023. The company will wholly own UPC-AC Renewables Australia upon completion of the second tranche,” a disclosure read.

Once completed, ACEN will have full ownership over the Australian development pipeline of more than 8GW.

UPC-AC Renewables Australia is currently constructing a 520 megawatts (MW) solar farm in New England, Australia and has a development pipeline of more than 8,000 MW spanning New South Wales, Tasmania, Victoria, and South Australia.

Moreover, ACEN also executed a subscription agreement with UPCAPH and Rohner. UPCAPH subscribed to 869,119,204 ACEN common shares while Rohner subscribed to 61,630,796 ACEN common shares at a subscription price of P7.871 per share.

“The transaction will have minimal effect on the ownership and capital structure of the Company. Upon completion of the issuance of up to 942 million common ACEN shares to UPCAPH and Mr. Rohner, they will own a combined 2.38 percent of the resulting outstanding shares of the company,” the disclosure read.

ACEN has about 2,600 MW of attributable capacity in the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia,  India and Australia. It aspires to be the largest listed renewables platform in Southeast Asia, with a goal of reaching 5,000 MW of renewables capacity by 2025.