First Gen readies funds for $526-M Casecnan deal

Lopez-led First Gen Corp. is hoping to reach financial closing by yearend for the Casecnan hydroelectric power plant that it had won via competitive bidding, a top official said recently.

First Gen chief operating officer Francis Giles Puno told reporters last week that the company was arranging financing for its winning $526-million bid for the Nueva Ecija facility, which was the first power asset to be privatized under the administration of President Marcos.

“We are ready to pay for the bid price for Casecnan. We’re actually excited because we need to make sure we can prove that our investment in Casecnan is feasible,” Puno said.

This came after a group of stock market investors raised concerns over First Gen’s “exorbitant bid price” for the 165-megawatt (MW) Casecnan power plant, saying that the company’s management needed to justify its bid price.

To recall, First Gen subsidiary Fresh River Lakes Corp. won competitive bidding led by the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. for the upstream Casecnan project in May.

Aboitiz-led Neptune Hydro Inc. offered only $258 million, while the consortium of EEI Power Corp., Soosan ENS Co. Ltd., Soosan Industries Co. Ltd. and Mapalad Power Corp. offered $298.9 million.

Asked about which banks First Gen was considering to fund its $526-million bid, Puno said these were “the usual suspects.”

“What’s good here is that the entire amount will come from domestic financing,” he added.

For now, the company awaited government approvals before it could officially start pursuing the project.

Casecnan, a run-of-river power facility located in Barangay Villarica, Pantabangan, serves as a main source of irrigation for farmers in the province. It also supplies energy to the power-hungry Luzon grid.

First Gen previously said the facility could augment supply in the company’s nearby Pantabangan-Masiway hydro plant, which was running at only 45 percent of its total 132-MW capacity due to low water levels in the area. INQ