P5.3-billion RCBC loan to fund build of wind power units
By Lenie Lectura – July 31, 2024
from Business Mirror
ALTERNERGY Holdings Corp. (Alternergy) announced it has secured a P5.3-billion loan from the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) to partly finance the construction of the 64-megawatt (MW) Alabat wind power project of its unit, Alabat Wind Power Corp. (AWPC).
The AWPC is wholly-owned subsidiary of Alternergy Wind Holdings Corp. (AWHC), which is the wind sub-holding company wholly-owned by Alternergy.
Alternergy reported on Wednesday that the project financing was secured from RCBC with RCBC Capital Corp. as the lead arranger for the transaction. Puyat Jacinto Santos Law acted as Lender’s Counsel and Tantoco Villanueva & De Guzman Law acted as Borrower’s Counsel.
Alternergy President Gerry P. Magbanua was quoted in a statement as saying that executives finally signed the loan agreement “after a very thorough due diligence period against a very tight timeline.”
The wind power project is located in the municipalities of Alabat and Quezon in the province of Quezon. According to the company, ground mobilization of the Alabat wind power project is now ongoing following the groundbreaking in early May.
Envision Energy has been awarded the wind turbine supply contract and the construction contract was awarded to China Energy Engineering Group Guangdong Electric Power Design Institute Co. Ltd (GEDI). Danish technical consulting firm K2 Management is the project’s owner’s engineer that will support Alternergy to ensure successful and timely construction of the project.
As a successful winner of the Green Energy Auction 2 Program of the Department of Energy (DOE), the Alabat wind power project will contribute new and additional generating capacity by end 2025 to help boost the country’s power supply availability.
The loan is the largest financing facility extended by RCBC to the Alternergy Group to date since 2014.
RCBC has bankrolled Alternergy’s 12.5 MWp Kirahon solar power project in Misamis Oriental and the Solar Pacific CitySun multi-site solar rooftop projects atop the building roofs of CityMalls.
RCBC Trust Corp., a subsidiary of RCBC, also supported Alternergy’s first solar photovoltaic and battery energy storage system project in the Republic of Palau as the Accounts Trustee. Lenie Lectura
“This project financing forms part of Alternergy’s capital raising activities under the Green Finance Framework which is also aligned with RCBC’s commitment to sustainable investments,” Alternergy Chief Financial Officer Maria Carmen G. Diaz said.
“Alternergy has so far closed P18.4 billion out of the P21 billion capital raising program,” Diaz added, further noting that more financial closings are forthcoming soon as part of Alternergy’s accelerated roll-out of its project portfolio to 500 MW by 2026.
