Lopez firm refinances $175M loan

Energy Development Corp., the country’s biggest producer of geothermal power, signed Tuesday a six-year $175-million transferrable syndicated term loan facility to refinance an existing loan.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, EDC explained that the new facility would effectively refinance EDC’s existing $175-million transferrable syndicated term loan to stretch its maturity to 2017 from June 2013.

“We are refinancing to take advantage of the lower interest rate environment, to extend our average tenor and to space out our maturities,” EDC president Richard B. Tantoco said in a separate interview.

The mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners of the transaction were Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. (ANZ); Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd.; Chinatrust Commercial Bank; ING Bank N.V. Manila branch; Maybank Group; Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd.; and Standard Chartered Bank.

According to Tantoco, the company even preferred to further stretch maturities to as long as eight to 10 years to give EDC leeway in financing its capital-intensive wind and geothermal power projects between now and 2016.

These expansion projects are expected to add as much as 300 megawatts in new capacities to EDC’s existing power portfolio in five to six years’ time. These include the 86-MW Burgos wind farm in Ilocos Norte and six geothermal power projects, namely Tanawon, Bacman, Rangas, Kayabon, Mindanao 3 and Nasulo. Once on line, these projects may help propel EDC to become the world’s biggest geothermal producer. Amy R. Remo