ACEN Corp., the power generation arm of Ayala Corp., plans to tap the debt market to raise P30 billion to partly finance 2023 capital expenditures.
“In terms of new debt, we are projecting to borrow about P30 billion. We are also looking at equity offering by way of preferred shares, and that is not part of the P30 billion expected borrowing during the year. That’s corporate finance,” ACEN chief finance officer Maria Corazon Dizon said in a briefing.
ACEN budgeted capital expenditures amounting to P50 billion to P70 billion for new projects and projects under construction this year.
ACEN president and chief executive Eric Francia said the company had a cash balance of P30 billion to P35 billion as of end-2022 that could be deployed for funding requirements this year.
“Obviously, we will deploy quite a bit of that cash levels that we have. And then in addition to that, we could tap some bilateral loans as well as the possible preferred share issuance to fund the balance of the requirements,” Francia said.
ACEN has around 2,400 megawatts of renewable power generation capacity under construction, majority of which will be operational in 2023.
Francia said of the projects under construction, 1,600 MW were in very advanced stages or nearing completion, thus “only a portion of that still needs quite a bit of capex.”
He said about 1,000 MW of renewables were being built in the country that would add much-needed capacity in the system and allow ACEN to have surplus energy and expand its customer base.
The company averages 1,000 MW of new projects every year, but it is looking at going beyond this leve to get closer to its 20,000-MW target by 2030.
“There’s a lot of work ahead of us, but we’ve got that singular objective of getting to 20 GW by 2030 , so that means growing our pipeline and increasing the rate of new projects under construction of what has been 1 GW to more than 1 GW,” Francia said.
ACEN ended 2022 with over 4,000 MW of net attributable capacity, with 98 percent coming from renewable technologies across the Philippines, Australia, Vietnam, India and Indonesia.
“The Philippines will remain as ACEN’s core market, with Australia remaining as the second largest market. In addition, we will continue to grow our presence in Vietnam, Indonesia and India,” Francia said.
He said solar and wind projects would remain ACEN’s core energy technologies, complemented by investments in battery energy storage, floating solar and offshore wind.
“This ambitious goal will be implemented by leveraging strategic partnerships with global and regional developers, multinational energy firms as well as local business groups, developers, and landowners,” he said.
ACEN is also moving forward with its commitment to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, which fully supports the company’s ongoing growth and decarbonization strategy.
ACEN completed in December its net zero roadmap, making the company the first in Southeast Asia to take the critical step towards achieving net zero, with a transparent framework for monitoring progress.
“ACEN recognizes that to reach the net zero outcome for the power sector, it will need to rely on both emissions reduction and neutralization of residual emissions. As part of its transition plan, ACEN aims to deliver reduction-led decarbonization by 2040, with an interim target for 2030, and a Net Zero status by 2050,” Francia said.