Alsons raising P 1B to finance projects

Alsons Consolidated Resources Inc. (ACR) said the The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had given the green light to its planned sale of a total of P1 billion in commercial paper, part of a package of up to P2.5 billion that the SEC approved in 2018.

ACR said in a statement that proceeds from the issuance were intended as interim funding for the company’s ongoing projects.

The Mindanao-based firm has a portfolio of four power facilities with total capacity of 468 megawatts (MW) serving over eight million people in 14 cities and 11 provinces, including Cagayan de Oro, General Santos, Iligan, and Zamboanga City.

Their bread and butter comes from a 210-MW coal-fired power complex in Sarangani, but ACR is shifting long-term focus to renewables, with eight run-of- river hydroelectric power plants in its pipeline—one of which is already being built.

“In the next few years, in terms of the number of power facilities, renewable energy will constitute the largest segment in Alsons’ power portfolio,” ACR chair and president Tomas I. Alcantara said in a statement.

ACR deputy chief financial officer Philip Edward B. Sagun said renewable energy contribution to ACR earnings was expected to be about 35 percent in the mid-term once its first three hydro plants start operating.

“In the long-term, when all eight hydro plants are operating, we project that renewable energy contribution to ACR earnings will be 45 percent,” Sagun said.

The group is building a P4.5-billion, 14.5-MW run-of -river hydroelectric power plant at the Siguil River basin, also in Maasim.

It is expected to start operations in 2022. INQ