ACEN Corp., the Ayala Group’s listed energy platform, is further expanding its footprint in Vietnam’s renewable energy space by acquiring for $70.5 million, a 49-percent stake in a unit of BIM Group.
For this purpose, ACEN Vietnam Investments Pte. Ltd. signed a share purchase agreement with Huntington Renewable Investments Ltd. (HRIL) to secure a stake in BIM Energy Holding Corp. (Bimeh).
READ: ACEN profit up 49%
ACEN said it paid an equivalent of about P4.2 billion for the transaction with Bimeh, the energy arm of the BIM Group which has solar and wind power projects in its portfolio.
“The acquisition will allow ACEN to increase its pipeline projects in Vietnam,” the listed company said in a stock exchange filing on Wednesday.
Longtime partner
ACEN and the BIM Group have a joint venture partnership in solar and wind projects in Vietnam, namely the 405-megawatt Ninh Thuan Solar project and the 88-MW Ninh Thuan Wind project.
According to ACEN, the Ninh Thuan Solar project, sitting on more than 300 hectares of land, is considered one of the largest of its kind in Southeast Asia.
The Ninh Thuan Solar project supplies around 600 million kilowatt-hours of renewable power yearly to Vietnam’s national grid. Its commercial operations began in 2019.
On the other hand, the Ninh Thuan Wind project in South Central Vietnam is the second joint undertaking of ACEN and the BIM Group which started operating in 2021.
This wind park is the second wind project in Vietnam that uses GE Renewable Energy’s Cypress turbines.
Looking for more
“We continue to build [a] pipeline [of projects] and look for RE opportunities in Vietnam apart from operating our existing assets,” ACEN said in a message to reporters.
ACEN reported a consolidated net income of P8.14 billion in the January to September period, a 24-percent jump from last year’s P6.6 billion, owing to the further expansion of its RE portfolio.
The company’s current renewable capacity has expanded to almost 7,000 MW as of this writing and it said it would continuously focus on projects that are being built and are under development.
ACEN aims to become a 100-percent RE company by 2025 and a net zero greenhouse gas emissions entity by 2050. It also seeks to hit 20,000 MW of renewable capacity by 2030.