AC Energy to acquire PINAI stake in Pagudpud wind farm operator
By Victor V. Saulon, Sub-Editor
AC ENERGY Philippines, Inc. is buying the stake of an equity investment fund in their 81-megawatt (MW) wind farm in Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte, the listed company told the stock exchange on Monday.
In a disclosure, it said the company’s executive committee at its meeting yesterday authorized the signing of a share purchase agreement with the Philippine Investment Alliance for Infrastructure (PINAI) for the Ayala-led energy company to acquire PINAI’s ownership interest in North Luzon Renewables Energy Corp.
“PINAI, a fund composed of Macquarie Infrastructure Holdings (Philippines) Pte. Limited, Langoer Investments Holding B.V. and the Government Service Insurance System, effectively has a 31% preferred equity ownership and 15% common equity ownership in North Luzon Renewables,” AC Energy Philippines said.
North Luzon Renewables owns and operates the wind farm, which started its commercial operations in November 2014.
“The acquisition is subject to definitive documentation and approval by the Philippine Competition Commission,” AC Energy Philippines said. It did not immediately respond when asked about the company’s resulting stake in North Luzon Renewables after the PINAI deal.
North Luzon Renewables is a joint venture of AC Energy Philippines parent firm AC Energy, Inc. (ACEI), UPC Philippines, Luzon Wind Energy Holdings, which is an affiliate of Mitsubishi Corp., and PINAI.
Based on its website, ACEI stated its economic stake in the project at 36%. It also says that the wind farm uses 27 units of Siemens SWT-3.0-101 wind turbines, where each turbine has an installed capacity of 3 MW.
The share purchase agreement comes after the board of AC Energy Philippines on Oct. 14 approved the increase in the company’s authorized capital stock to P24.4 billion. It is issuing 6,185,182,288 shares to ACEI out of the increase in its capital stock in exchange for property needed by it for corporate purposes.
The property consists of shares of stock owned by ACEI in select subsidiaries and affiliates in the Philippines as approved by the board on Oct. 9, 2019.
In exchange for the shares valued at P2.37 per share, ACEI has agreed to assign to the Phinma Energy Corp. — the former name of AC Energy Philippines — its shares in the following subsidiaries: AC Energy Development, Inc., Monte Solar Energy, Inc., Ingrid Power Holdings, Inc., South Luzon Thermal Energy Corp., Philippine Wind Holdings, Inc., ACTA Power Corp., Moorland Philippines Holdings, Inc., Manapla Sun Power Development Corp., Viage Corp., and NorthWind Power Development Corp.
On Monday, shares in AC Energy Philippines were unchanged at P2.79 each.
