AC Energy expects to hit half of 5,000MW RE goal in 2021
By Lenie Lectura – November 19, 2020
from Business Mirror
AC Energy Philippines (ACEN) said it expects to achieve half of its 5,000megawatt (MW) target renewable energy (RE) capacity by next year.
“The plan is to scale up our RE to 5,000MW or even more. We are feeling confident that we will exceed our RE target. Next year, we expect our RE to reach 2,500MW. So, we expect to be halfway through our 2025 target as early as 2021,” said AC Energy President Eric Francia.
Of the 2,500MW target, Francia said 1,500MW of RE projects are lined up next year. “We have 1,500MW worth of projects in the region including Philippines (500MW), Australia (500MW) and the remaining 500MW in India and Vietnam. Those four markets, we expect to build 1,500MW.”
ACEN, which has 1,000MW of capacity in its portfolio, will integrate its international business, which currently has 900MW RE capacity.
“Once we infuse our international platform into ACEN next year, ACEN will have a total of 1,900MW,” he said. Of which, Francia said RE capacity is about 1,350MW.
ACEN aspires to be the largest listed renewables platform in Southeast Asia, with the goal of reaching 5,000 MW of renewables capacity by 2025.
“Basically, we are very much prepared. We are prepared in our balance sheet and cash that’s why we’re active in the capital market because we really want to be prepared. We’re really very bullish about the energy transition. We’d like to play a leading role in energy transition, particularly towards shifting to RE technologies,” said Francia.
“To us, it’s a very unique window of opportunity and we will be there to make sure we will be leaders in the RE space. Our aspiration is to be the largest listed RE in Southeast Asia.”
To make it happen, the company needs equity of $1.8 to $2 billion. Francia had said that the company has lined up various sources of capital requirements.
“We have existing cash reserves of about $700 million and then we have a series of fund raising activities, such as stock rights offerings, private placement and follow-on offering, which we are targeting next year. Among those three fund raising activities, we expect to raise an additional $500 to $600 million to add to our existing cash reserves of $700 million today.
So, if you add all, that’s $1.2 to $1.3 billion. So, we need $500 to $600million more. We will deal with that later on because we don’t need all that cash until 2024 to 2025,” he said.
