Acen to offer fresh 1.58-B shares

AC Energy Corp. (Acen) is cuing 1.58 billion primary shares at P6 to P8.20 apiece for its planned follow-on offering slated for the middle of this year.

This would put the transaction amount to about P9.5 billion to P13 billion.

Acen said in a disclosure secondary shares would be included as part of the total offering size.

This comes on the heels of Arran Investment Pte. Ltd.’s subscription of four billion primary shares in Acen. Arran is an affiliate of Singapore wealth fund GIC Private Ltd.

This private placement is the first tranche of GIC’s investment to achieve a 17.5-percent ownership stake in Acen, announced in the latter part of 2020.

Arran is set to purchase secondary shares of Acen parent and holding firm AC Energy and Infrastructure Corp. (ACEIC), which would enable it to achieve a 17.5-percent stake in Acen.

In a related development, Acen’s board has approved the property-for-share swap with ACEIC and the issuance of about 16.7 billion of its shares to ACEIC at P5.15 apiece or a total of about P86 billion.

The transaction consists of all of ACEIC’s shares in AC Energy International Inc., which holds all of ACEIC’s international renewable energy assets and investments. This is subject to regulatory and shareholders’ approvals.

Further, Acen and its subsidiary ACE Endevor Inc. signed a shareholders’ agreement with Axia Power Holdings Philippines Corp., a subsidiary of Marubeni Corp., for the development, construction and operation of a 150-megawatt diesel power plant project in Pililla, Rizal.

Dubbed the Ingrid Project, the power plant is expected to be operational within this month.

Axia will acquire half of the shares and economic rights in Ingrid Power Holdings Inc., also an Acen subsidiary and the special purpose vehicle of the Ingrid project.

Completing the joint venture is Acen’s 50-percent shareholdings and 45 percent of the economic rights and Endevor’s 5-percent share of the economic rights.

As of January, Acen has already infused P570 million to fund the Ingrid Project.