Leviste injects P15B for provincial projects

Founder, President and CEO of Solar Philippines, Leandro Leviste | PHOTO: Official website of SM / My Story, My SM

Businessman Leandro Leviste will shell out another P15 billion to develop several projects, including a farm and land investments, in the provinces of Batangas, Tarlac and Nueva Ecija, this time through another one of his holding companies.

Provincia Investments Corp., in which Leviste serves as president and CEO, said in a statement on Tuesday that the budget was in addition to the initial P5-billion investment of Countryside Investments Holdings Corp., also a Leviste-led company.

Provincia functions as a holding company that invests in real estate and equities for industrial- and energy-related projects, among others.

READ: Leviste buys 8.5% stake of ABS-CBN

Founded by Leviste in 2013, Provincia intends to help in developing the land bank of Solar Philippines Power Project Holdings Inc. in the three provinces.

Among Provincia’s other recent investments include a 60-hectare poultry farm in Nueva Ecija, which the company said was “valued at an attractive price.”

Three years ago, the company also entered into a P1-billion loan agreement with Ayala-led energy firm ACEN Corp. to support the latter’s land acquisition in Tarlac. This has since been fully paid, according to Provincia.

Provincia’s investment comes six months after Leviste, through Countryside, made his P5-billion investment to supposedly create jobs for 13,000 farmers.

The 31-year-old businessman has been diversifying his investments in other sectors since relinquishing control over SP New Energy Corp. (SPNEC), his renewable energy firm under Solar Philippines, to billionaire Manuel V. Pangilinan via Meralco PowerGen Corp. (MGen).

Earlier this month, MGen, the power generation arm of power distributor Manila Electric Co., purchased more shares in SPNEC for P6.7 billion in a deal with Solar Philippines.

The amount was paid for 5.8 billion shares, or an 11.6-percent stake in SPNEC. As a result, MGen now holds a 50.5-percent stake in the solar firm, while Solar Philippines owns 38.9 percent.

“Now that we have this capital, it is our responsibility to invest it to benefit as many of our countrymen as we can,” Leviste said in a statement.

Pangilinan first took control of SPNEC, which seeks to build the largest solar park in the world with a 3,500-megawatt capacity, in December after injecting P15.9 billion into the company.