PSALM seen having residual debts of P200-B after corporate life in 2026
By Myrna M. Velasco – December 21, 2022, 2:54 PM
From Manila Bulletin
State-run Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) is seen posting residual debts of roughly P200 billion at the end of its corporate life in 2026, according to company President and CEO Dennis Edward Dela Serna.
At end-June this year, the level of debts of the company had been at P355.9 billion, but that is expected to go down when additional proceeds from the continuing privatization of power facilities as well as real estate assets of the company will be pursued.
“By 2026, we’re looking at P200 billion remaining at the end of corporate life of PSALM if we will no longer extend,” Dela Serna specified.
That amount though, he said, could still be reduced depending on the ‘premium’ that the company could fetch on the sale of the remaining power and real estate assets of the National Power Corp. (NPC), which was formerly the state’s vertically integrated power utility.
By law, PSALM has been mandated to manage the divestment of the NPC assets; as well as manage its liabilities by utilizing the revenues it could generate from the privatization of the power facilities.
“On the privatization proceeds, it really depends on the number of bidders, on their appetite – if there’s premium over the minimum bid price,” the PSALM chief executive expounded.
Given the very volatile value of the Philippine peso versus the greenback, the PSALM chief executive similarly indicated that “for every one peso depreciation against the dollar, there’s additional P4 billion increase in the debts for the total obligation.”
As could be gleaned from PSALM data, at least 56-percent of the company’s financial obligations are denominated in US dollars; while 40-percent are in Philippine peso; and the marginal 4.0-percent is in Japanese yen.
At this stage, there’s still no certainty if PSALM will be given another lease of corporate life; and what additional functions it will assume when that is granted via a Congressional measure.
A bill has been re-filed in the current Congress by Albay Congressman Joey Salceda, but deliberations on the proposed legislation has yet to take off in the lower chamber; and there’s also no concrete step taken by the Senate yet on the matter.
