ACEN lists green bonds on PDEx

BY LENIE LECTURA – SEPTEMBER 23, 2022
from Business Mirror

ACEN Corp. has successfully listed its maiden peso-denominated Asean green bonds on the Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp. (PDEx) platform. It said Thursday that the P10-billion green bonds, with a fixed interest rate of 6.0526 percent per annum for a five-year tenor, were 8.6 times oversubscribed.

“We are grateful for the strong support of Philippine institutional and retail investors for the company’s maiden peso green bond issuance. The successful offering will help ACEN realize its vision of reaching 20 GW (gigawatts) of renewables capacity by 2030,” said ACEN President and CEO Eric Francia.

The proceeds from the bond issuance will be used to finance ACEN’s renewable energy (RE) projects in the Philippines, particularly the 283-MW San Marcelino Solar I farm in Zambales, the 42-MW expansion of the 72-MW Arayat-Mexico Solar farm in Pampanga, as well as the construction of the 133-MW Cagayan Solar farm in Lal-lo, Cagayan.

BDO Capital & Investment Corp. and BPI Capital Corp. are the joint issue managers for the green bonds, while BDO Capital, BPI Capital, RCBC Capital Corp., and SB Capital & Investment Corp. are the joint lead underwriters and Bookrunners for the transaction.

The public offer and sale of the green bonds happened last September 9, and was concluded on September 15.

The green bonds were issued as the first tranche of the company’s P30-billion debt securities program.

ACEN and its majority shareholder AC Energy and Infrastructure Corp. (ACEIC), through their respective special-purpose vehicles, have raised an aggregate of $1.6 billion of green bonds since 2019 to support financing for its RE investments and projects.

“Amidst the challenging macroeconomic environment, we are encouraged by the enthusiastic take-up of our bonds by the investing community. Our group is one of the country’s largest issuers of green bonds, and we are happy to contribute to the development of our nation’s debt capital market with our maiden peso green bond issuance,” said ACEN CFO and Treasurer Cora G. Dizon.

The green bonds have been rated PRS Aaa by the Philippine Rating Services Corporation, the highest possible rating.