Energy Development Corp. on Thursday secured an approval from its board to obtain three-year loans with several local banks amounting to a maximum of P11.5 billion.
EDC said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange it would use proceeds from the loan to refinance an $80-million club loan and fund a portion of its capital expenditure program and other general corporate purposes.
“We’re looking within this third quarter. We’re talking to three to four banks right now but haven’t closed yet,” EDC vice president for finance Erwin Avante said.
Avante said EDC earlier obtained the club loan with two foreign banks which he did not disclose.
“We paid it last June but EDC paid for it in the meantime with the intention of refinancing/replacing it with a portion of this loan,” he said.
EDC, the country’s largest geothermal and wind energy company, programmed a capital spending of about P6.1 billion this year, the same level as last year’s, officials said earlier.
“We’re looking at around P6.1 billion for this year. Around range-bound, around the same as the previous years. In the prior years we had some growth projects… but since then, it’s all on existing operations,” Avante said earlier.
He said the bulk of the capital expenditure or over P1 billion would be spent for geothermal drilling this year.
The company will also continue to invest in the reliability and resiliency of power plants.
EDC recorded a net income of P1.5 billion in the first three months of 2018, down 54 percent from P3.26 billion in 2017.
EDC’s consolidated recurring net income attributable to equity holders of the parent for the period stood at P1.81 billion, down 44 percent from P3.25 billion year-on-year.
Inclusive of non-recurring items consolidated net income attributable to equity holders of the parent stood at P1.34 billion, lower than P3.09 billion in the first quarter of 2017.
EDC attributed the decline to lower revenues, which were partially offset by higher insurance proceeds and decreased interest expense.
“Our results for the first quarter was dominated by the impact of Typhoon Urduja that hit Leyte island, site of our biggest geothermal business unit, in December (last year)”, EDC chief financial officer Nestor Vasay said.