Tender offer for Phinma minority owners readied

AC Energy Inc. is planning a tender offer in the next few months for minority owners of Phinma Energy Corp., following the Ayala group’s acquisition of a controlling stake in Phinma’s energy platform.

AC Energy president Eric Francia said in an interview the tender officer would be launched soon, but that there were still number-crunching being done.

“There’s work to be done especially since it (Phinma Energy) booked losses in 2018,” Francia said, saying the pricing of shares needed to be worked out.

He said that, on the one hand, AC Energy wanted to keep Phinma Energy listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange to maintain flexibility and ease in raising funds for the company.

On the other hand, Phinma Energy may be made a private corporation if all minority shareholders took up the tender offer.

In April, Ayala Corp. said the Philippine Competition Commission had approved AC Energy’s acquisition of shares in Phinma Energy—including those of Phinma Inc. and Phinma Corp. that combine to a 51.48-percent interest for about P3.42 billion.

The transaction results in a total stake for AC Energy of around 68 percent, subject to the conduct of a tender offer for the shares of Phinma Energy’s minority shareholders.

AC Energy and Phinma Energy first teamed up in 2011 for the development, construction and operations of a 244-megawatt coal power plant in Calaca, Batangas, under South Luzon Thermal Energy Corp.