EDC board approves public offering, listing of P10-b ASEAN green bonds

By Alena Mae S. Flores – November 29, 2023, 9:40 pm
from manilastandard.net

The board of Energy Development Corp. (EDC) on Wednesday approved the public offering, issuance and listing of the second tranche of the company’s shelf-registered ASEAN Green Bonds worth up to P10 billion.

First Gen Corp., the parent company of EDC, said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange the fixed-rate bond issue is subject to the approval of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp.

EDC senior vice president and chief finance officer Edwin Avante said the company would use the proceeds from the bonds to cover growth projection for 2024 and other general corporate purposes.

“We have seven ongoing projects as of the moment. But for this ASEAN Green Bond, we will still finalize the allocation which it will fund,” Avante said.

EDC was awarded two geothermal projects under the 4th Open and Competitive Selection Process (OCSP4).

The Department of Energy, in an advisory last month, declared EDC as the winning bidder for the 100-megawatt (MW) Buguias-Tinoc geothermal project and the 20-MW Mt. Sembrano geothermal project.

EDC also plans to drill 40 new wells over the next three years with capital investments amounting to P60 billion to sustain and expand the operations of its geothermal projects.

“The main focus of EDC over the next three years is to make sure that we can continue to deliver the amount of renewable source of geothermal for our customers,” EDC vice chairman and chief executive Francis Giles Puno said earlier.

He said the new wells would “make sure that we can continue to extract sustainable steam from the ground.”

Most of EDC’s drilling operations will be conducted in Leyte and Mt. Apo in Mindanao.

EDC has an installed capacity of 1,480.19 MW which accounts for about 20 percent of the country’s total installed renewable energy capacity.