Cosco wants to add hydropower firm to cart

Billionaire Lucio Co is set to take over another hydropower-focused company to further widen his reach in the renewable energy sector, joining other tycoons already advancing in the green power race.

Cosco Capital Inc., Co’s listed supermarket, liquor and property holding company, on Thursday said its board of directors had approved the acquisition of all the outstanding shares of Nueva Vizcaya-based Matuno River Development Corp. (MRDC).

READ: Cosco Capital’s 2023 profit up to P12.4B

Pricing for MRDC’s 9.18 million shares will be announced “in due course,” according to Cosco.

“The intended transaction offers [Cosco] the opportunity to enter into another profitable business within the renewable energy sector,” the company said in a stock exchange filing.

The deal is still under the negotiation stage and may be submitted to the Philippine Competition Commission if needed, Cosco added.

MRDC is the developer of the 8.66-megawatt (MW) Matuno River hydroelectric power plant, a run-of-river facility covered by a hydro power service contract with the Department of Energy.

This is Co’s second renewable energy venture this year.

READ: BIZ BUZZ: Lucio Co hops into RE bandwagon

In March, Cosco, which also owns grocery retail chain Puregold Price Club Inc., acquired 60 percent of Catuiran Hydropower Corp., the operator of an 8-MW hydropower plant in Oriental Mindoro, for P551.88 million.

Co now joins other tycoons—the Zobel family through Acen Corp., Edgar Saavedra through the Citicore Group, the Aboitizes through Aboitiz Power Corp., and Manuel V. Pangilinan through MGen Renewable Energy Inc.—in the robust renewable energy market.

Co first announced plans to foray into clean energy in December 2023 in a bid to boost investments in the sector, noting that it would also give them a “profitable business portfolio in the medium and long term.”

Sustained consumer spending despite high inflation lifted the first-quarter earnings of Cosco by 10.4 percent to P3.4 billion.

Revenues likewise expanded by 7.1 percent to P50.9 billion as its business segments benefited from strong consumer demand. —MEG J. ADONIS