ACEN to guarantee $320-M loan secured by subsidiary
By Lenie Lectura – January 16, 2024
from Business Mirror
ACEN Corp. will guarantee the $320-million loan obtained by its offshore investment subsidiary, ACEN Cayman, from two local banks.
In a disclosure Monday, the power business arm of conglomerate Ayala Corp. said it executed a parent company guarantee last January 12 in favor of ACEN Cayman’s lenders—the Philippine National Bank for $140 million and Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. for $180 million.
The loan, ACEN said, will be used to redeem the preferred shares held by AC Energy Finance International Limited (ACEFIL) in ACEN Cayman. The proceeds, it added, will be used by ACEFIL to redeem its maturing green bonds.
In July last year, ACEN said ACEN Cayman was raising $352 million to finance the power firm’s renewable energy (RE) expansion.
ACEN has set an ambitious target of reaching 20 gigawatts (GW) by 2030 in line with its net-zero carbon emissions goal. So far, the company has around 4.3 GW of capacity from its facilities in the Philippines, Australia, Vietnam, Indonesia and India, with a renewable energy share of 98 percent.
In December last year, ACEN secured a loan worth P11 billion from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) to finance more RE projects.
The company said the loan aligns with its aspiration to become the largest listed renewables platform in Southeast Asia and will contribute to the development of solar projects.
Last November, the company reported a net income of P6.6 billion at end-September 2023, up by 59 percent from the same period a year ago, boosted by gains from the sale of its stake in geothermal power plants in Indonesia.
Revenues for January to September rose 13 percent year-on-year to P28.6 billion on the back of higher retail customer tariffs and the ramp-up of New England solar in Australia and Pagudpud wind in the Philippines.
Core operating earnings, which represents ACEN’s attributable share of income from operating units, doubled with new operating capacity across the global portfolio and the shift to a net selling merchant position in 2023. This offset higher overhead and development expenses for the period as ACEN continues to ramp up its renewables expansion in the Philippines and in Australia.
