MANILA, Philippines—Energy Development Corp. (EDC) the country’s leading producer of geothermal energy, plans to raise some P18 billion this year to refinance maturing loans and fund the company’s expansion projects.

In a briefing Tuesday, EDC president Paul A. Aquino said the Lopez-led firm wanted to take advantage of the "open" market for corporate debt issues.

According to EDC deputy president and COO Richard B. Tantoco, the company has already raised P7.5 billion from its retail corporate notes facility, and was hoping to raise P5 billion more in retail bonds, and another P5 billion in loans from the International Finance Corp.

EDC signed on Tuesday an agreement for a five-year and seven-year corporate notes facility, worth a combined P7.5 billion.

“EDC’s maiden debt issue in the domestic capital markets elicited strong investor take-up. As a result, the issue was 2.5 times oversubscribed and was upsized from its original issue size of P3 billion,” the company said.

“The warm response from institutional investors underscores the high credit quality of EDC and illustrates the market’s confidence in the company,” added EDC chief financial officer Fenina Rodriguez.

The facility was arranged by a consortium of local banks led by BDO Capital & Investment Corp. and co-led by PNB Capital and Investment Corp., RCBC Capital Corp. and SB Capital Investment Corp.

The amount to be raised this year would partly finance EDC’s total maturing loans in 2010, which were estimated at $300 million.