Ty’s GT Capital shelves IPO plans for power unit

Taipan George Ty’s investment holding firm, GT Capital Holdings Inc., is shelving for the “medium term” plans to take its power subsidiary, Global Business Power Corp., public after the latter took in two new investors over the last four months.

An initial public offering for Global Business Power has been in the cards, but GT Capital chief financial officer Francisco Suarez Jr. said last week that any immediate listing was not necessary.

“This year and in the medium-term, there are no plans of listing it [Global Business Power],” Suarez told reporters.

Global Business Power, one of the biggest power producers in Visayas, is still controlled by GT Capital, which owns about 51 percent.

The remaining stake, held through First Metro Investment Corp., which is owned by Ty’s Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. (Metrobank), has been cut after the sale of a combined 40 percent to Japan’s Orix Corp. and Manuel V. Pangilinan-led Manila Electric Co.

First Metro will still own about 9 percent of the power firm.

The deal with Meralco PowerGen Corp., which was announced two weeks ago, is likely to be closed within the month, Suarez said.

No financial details were given on that transaction, but Angelito Lantin, Meralco PowerGen senior vice president, said the deal was valued at about the about the same price as the Orix transaction.

This would value 20 percent of the power company at roughly P7.15 billion, and the entire company at over P35.7 billion.

The sale of the stake, apart from monetizing Ty’s interests, was also in preparation for the implementation of tighter capital adequacy requirements for the Metrobank Group.

Global Business Power currently owns and operates nine power plants in Toledo City, Cebu and Iloilo City, Panay Island with a total installed capacity of 627 megawatts. It originally had a mainly bunker fuel-fired generation capacity of 230 MW but later expanded with the construction of a 410-MW  generation plant using clean coal-fired technology.

Suarez, meanwhile, said GT Capital continues to consolidate its assets, which span automobiles, banking, insurance and real estate.

He noted that there was also no immediate plan to list property unit, Federal Land.