Apo Agua Infrastructura Inc., a joint venture of Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. and J.V. Angeles Construction Corp., is finalizing a P9-billion long-term loan facility to finance a bulk water project in Davao City.
AEV chief finance officer Manuel Lozano said in a recent interview the company was now in talks with financial institutions to arrange the term loan facility before the end of the year or first quarter of 2017.
“We have a lead bank and probably they will need another two to three banks to join,” Lozano said.
Lozano said the terms for the loan facility remained to be finalized but the company expected to secure 12- to 15-year loan facility at low interest rates.
The group wanted to finalize the funding requirement, as the Apo Agua was set to start developing the country’s largest private bulk water supply facility together with a fully renewable energy-powered water treatment plant worth P12 billion.
“We hope to get all the permits by the third quarter of the year. Our goal is to start construction by the end of the year,” Lozano said.
Under the plan, Apo Agua will supply up to 300 million liters per day of potable bulk water from the Tamugan River to Davao City Water District, which will benefit more than 1 million people of Davao City.
JVACC is the engineering, procurement and construction contractor for the entire project.
JVACC is one of the leading contractors in the Philippines with over 48 years of experience in the construction and development of water-related infrastructure.
Its portfolio includes the construction of HedcorSibulan’s run-of-river hydropower electric project, which provides 42 megawatts of Davao City’s power supply.
JVACC-AEV consortium received the notice of award from the DCWD to build and operate the Tamugan Surface Water Development Project.
AEV, which has investments in power generation, property development, banking and agribusiness earlier said it planned to diversify into infrastructure sector to create the conglomerate’s “fifth leg”.
AEV said it planned to bid for more public-private partnership projects as it saw infrastructure development as a key source of growth for its growing business.