Newly-elected Batangas Rep. Leandro Legarda Leviste agreed to divest most of his shares in listed renewable firm SP New Energy Corp. (SPNEC) before assuming office on June 30, 2025.
Solar Philippines Power Project Holdings Inc, a renewable firm founded by Leviste, said in a statement it signed an agreement to sell 5.01 billion SPNEC shares for P6.26 billion to Meralco PowerGen Corp. (MGen).
This is on top of the previous agreement to sell 5.82 billion shares for P7.5 billion.
MGen already paid P13.76 billion for the combined 10.83 billion shares. The transfer of the shares will take place soon. MGen earlier purchased from Leviste 3.77 billion shares for P4.50 billion.
Altogether, Leviste’s wholly-owned companies agreed to sell a total of 14.60 billion shares to MGen for P18.26 billion.
Leviste, who won as the new representative of Batangas First District in the May elections, also sold 1.84 billion SPNEC shares to public shareholders for P2.23 billion in 2023 via a follow-on offering.
Leviste has sold a total of 16.44 billion shares for P20.49 billion.
After these transactions, Solar Philippines will continue to own 8.16 billion shares of SPNEC.
Leviste is considering options for other private placements and financing on the remaining SPNEC shares of Solar Philippines and affiliates, which would bring the total funding raised from the SPNEC shares of Solar Philippines and affiliates to over P34 billion.
Leviste founded Solar Philippines in 2013 to accelerate the development of solar energy in the Philippines.
Solar Philippines completed Luzon’s largest solar farm in Batangas and began developing SPNEC’s Nueva Ecija solar farm in 2016. It also began operating its Tarlac solar farm in 2019.
SPNEC became the first solar company to conduct an IPO in the Philippines in 2021.
SPNEC through its unit is constructing the 3,500-MW Terra Solar project in Nueva Ecija, the world’s single largest solar-battery project.
SPNEC, under Meralco’s leadership, raising the funding from banks and foreign investors for the P200-billion project, including the largest foreign investment for an infrastructure project in Philippine history in 2024.
