PHINMA ENERGY Corp. told the stock exchange on Monday that a Cayman Islands-based investment fund had acquired a 5.005% stake in the company.
The investment fund, Motus Fund Ltd., purchased 244,723,560 shares of the power producer and supplier.
Motus, which has the power to dispose and to vote for the stake, acquired the shares during five transactions this month — March 1, 9, 12, 19 and 20 — at the price of P1.53 each.
Shares in Phinma Energy, formerly Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corp., added one centavo or 0.67% to close at P1.51 apiece on Monday.
The transactions were done days after parent Phinma Corp. told the stock exchange about its plan to buy back up to 10% of the holding firm’s issued and outstanding shares until Dec. 31, 2019 through the trading facilities of the Philippine Stock Exchange.
Also on Monday, Phinma Corp. released its information statement in which it described the subsidiary as looking forward to “greater participation in the retail electricity market using its existing portfolio of generating plants.”
“The company remains poised to develop additional conventional and renewable energy projects as market and regulatory conditions merit, as it pursues its vision to be the preferred electricity supplier of choice, serving the energy supply requirements of its customers as its contribution toward nation building and making lives better,” it said.
The parent company said Phinma Energy “will enter into the downstream oil industry, initially catering to the fuel requirement of its own diesel plants,” through subsidiary One Subic Oil Distribution Corp.
It added Phinma Petroleum and Geothermal, Inc. is ready to resume operations “once conditions permit.”
“Moving forward, Phinma Energy recognizes the need to diversify its generating portfolio, particularly in light of an oversupply in baseload coal plants foreseen over the next several years,” it said.
Phinma Energy is studying projects that will diversity its generation portfolio to include gas and hydropower. Three projects under study are combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plants, including the 383-megawatt (MW) Sta. Ana CCGT power plant in Port Irene, Sta. Ana, Cagayan; the 383-MW Sual CCGT floating power plant in Brgy. Baquioen, Sual, Pangasinan; and the 138-MW Argao floating CCGT power plant in Brgy. Bulasa, Argao, Cebu.
A fourth project under study is the 21.6-MW Ilog hydroelectric power plant in Mabinay, Negros Oriental.
“The projects, all in the pre-development stage, have been cleared by the DoE (Department of Energy) for conduct of grid impact studies, and further development shall proceed as merited by market conditions,” the firm said. — Victor V. Saulon
