FDC expands power sector footprint

Filinvest Development Corp. has forged deals to supply 228 megawatts of power to local electric cooperatives as the conglomerate of the Gotianun group builds up additional power generation capacity across the country.

According to FDC president Josephine Gotianun-Yap, the group will put up a 405-MW power facility in Misamis Oriental while it explores hydroelectric prospects in Luzon.

The group will also bid for power generation assets that the government seeks to privatize, Yap said in her report to stockholders during the company’s annual meeting on Friday.

“All these projects are expected to bear fruit in the next two to three years,” Yap said, pointing to the growth in the company’s earning streams which would contribute significantly to the group’s financial performance.

The contract for the P30-billion power generation facility to be built by FDC Utilities Inc. (FCDUI) in Misamis Oriental will soon be awarded, Yap said. The project is expected to break ground by the third quarter of this year.

FDC Utilities Inc. is a unit of the Gotianun group.

Last month, the group signed a 28-year lease contract covering an initial 84.4 hectares of land in Villanueva, Misamis Oriental. The property is part of an industrial estate operated by Philippine Veterans Investment Development Corp. (Phividec).

“The Phividec site is ideal for FCDUI’s three 135-MW circulating fluidized bed coal-fired plant, which will be built in two phases,” Yap said.

“This will address the critical power shortage now being experienced by Mindanao,” she added.

FDC chair Jonathan Gotianun said that the group expects the Misamis facility to start contributing to the grid by 2016.

Six months after the operation of the first phase, he said, the group would decide on the next phase.

“We are very optimistic about the Philippine economy. The elections were good, there were no major problems. So, we continue to be very positive about our country,” Gotianun said.

FDC has interests in real estate, financial and banking services, sugar, hospitality services and power generation.

“While real estate understandably continues to account for a large chunk of consolidated revenues, the other business units of the group are gradually accounting for a larger share, now totaling 49 percent,” Yap said.