KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia—Aboitiz Power Corp., the power arm of the Aboitiz Group, remains keen on acquiring Northern Davao Electric Cooperative (Nordeco) for up to P1 billion, a top executive said.
“It’s no secret that we’ve been approached by coop in Davao, Nordeco. We are willing to offer right. As a consumer, it’s hard to swallow that you are here under Nordeco and across the street is Davao Light where consumers get power 24 hours a day at a cheaper price,” AboitizPower distribution utilities chief operating officer Anton Mari Perdices said at the sidelines of Enlist Asia 2024 Conference and Exhibition.
Davao Light and Power Co., is the third privately-owned electricity utility in the country serving Davao City and a subsidiary of AboitizPower.
“So, we are there but it has to go through Congress, Senate, the President to a House Bill. So, it gets a lot of political involvement in it. It’s not as easy as switch it off one day to the next,” he said.
Nordeco’s franchise area lies in the southern part of the country. It is adjacent to Davao Oriental Electric Cooperative Inc. (Doreco) in the western part, Agusan del Sur Electric Cooperative, Inc. (Aselco) in the northern part and Davao Light, a private utility in the eastern part. Alena Mae S. Flores
“Asset purchase alone was somewhere between P700 million to a billion to purchase the assets, and then we would still need to do a technical due diligence to see what it could take to raise the standards to our level. Functionality of distribution transformers, quality of the lines, meters. So we still have to look at that,” Percides said.
Nordeco, however, opposed previous bills proposing the expansion of the franchise area of Davao Light, which would affect its franchise.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. also vetoed an earlier version of the bill in 2022 for the possible “apparent overlap and possible infringement into the subsisting franchise, permits, and contracts previously granted to [Nordeco].”
The president said he was “constrained to veto the bill due to the susceptibility of the proposed expansion of the franchise area of Davao Light and Power Company, Inc. to legal and constitutional challenge due to the apparent overlap and possible infringement into the subsisting franchise, permits, and contracts previously granted to North Davao Electric Cooperative Inc.”
