The Securities and Exchange Commission approved an increase in the capital stock of First Gen Corp. to P11.6 billion from P8.6 billion through the creation of 300 million Series H preferred shares with a par value of P10 apiece.
First Gen said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange Tuesday the higher capital “will provide increased financial flexibility” in pursuing the construction of a liquefied natural gas terminal in Batangas.
First Gen’s wholly-owned subsidiary FGen LNG Corp. is proceeding with the LNG project after receiving the go-signal from the Department of Energy last month.
“The FGen Batangas LNG Terminal Project is intended to serve the natural gas requirements of existing and future gas-fired power plants of third parties and FGen LNG affiliate,” First Gen said in a previous disclosure to the stock exchange.
First Gen’s LNG terminal project is located in the First Gen Clean Energy Complex in Batangas City.
First Gen owns 2,000 megawatts of four operating gas assets. They are the 1,000-megawatt Santa Rita Power Plant, the 500-MW San Lorenzo Power Plant, the 414-MW San Gabriel Power Plant and the 97-MW Avion Power Plant. The facilities feed on natural gas from the Malampaya gas field.
“The next phase is the selection of the contractor. The main reason for selecting the contractor is to firm up the cost of the project… Hopefully, we move towards financing close,” he said.
Puno said First Gen was expecting to complete the partnership arrangement within the year and start the construction of the project next year.
“We’re going through this phase now with the final design of the facility and then hopefully we make a decision on the contractor. In the meantime, we’re also looking at other partners who are available,” he said.
Puno said other foreign investors expressed interest in joining the project.
“For me, it improves our likelihood to be able to proceed with the project,” he said. Alena Mae S. Flores
“I think I can say is that we’re just flexible because we need to make sure it proceeds. But fortunately, it’s not the lack of interest from other investors. It’s in a way a good position because there seems to be a lot of interest,” he said.
First Gen was looking at a capacity of about 3 million to 5 million metric tons of LNG, depending on the shipments and the usage. Alena Mae S. Flores