By Myrna M. Velasco
Former president of the Philippine Electricity Market Corporation (PEMC), Melinda L. Ocampo, has joined the board of directors of the energy investment arm of the Ayala group – the AC Energy Philippines which was newly-renamed from PHINMA Energy Corporation.
PEMC was still the combined operating and governing entity of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) when Ocampo was at its helm and until her resignation in July 2017.
AC Energy President and CEO Eric T. Francia stated that Ocampo’s engagement into the board of the company would be a plus factor to them, given the “experience and expertise she has in the energy sector” that she can contribute into the energy business unit of the conglomerate.
Aside from Ocampo as independent director, former Meralco president and CEO Jesus P. Francisco was also named into the AC Energy board (also as independent director); while former Energy Secretary Raphael Perpertuo M. Lotilla was also elected into the board of subsidiary Phinma Petroleum and Geothermal Inc. – of which core business in the upstream petroleum industry has been re-channeled to new corporate entity Enexor.
At AC Energy, the board of directors is chaired by Fernando Zobel de Ayala, and vice chairman is Jaime Augusto Zobel be Ayala; while members include Gerardo C. Ablaza, Jose Rene D. Almendras, John Philip S. Orbeta, Consuelo D. Garcia, Ma. Aurora Geotina-Garcia, Sherisa P. Nuesa, Francisco and Ocampo.
Upon the renaming of company-acquisition PHINMA Energy into AC Energy Philippines Inc., the first step taken by the Ayala firm is to increase its authorized capital stock to 24 billion shares – the additional 16 billion shares created of which shall be subjected to a share swap and a stock rights offering (SRO) to be decided next month.
Francia indicated that the company shall be on its “financial turnaround pathway” after the completion of the acquisition – and one major development that could underpin that goal would be the new power supply agreements (PSAs) that AC Energy had cornered with Manila Electric Company.
“AC Energy aims to return to a positive bottom line immediately by 2020 as well as doubling its capital and generation capacity and increasing thermal availability by over 20 percentage points,” Francia said.
The company is certain on its expansion plans for renewable energy (RE) investments – which had been cast at 2,000 megawatts for the Philippines; and 3,500MW in offshore markets.
Nevertheless, for thermal generation capacity, the Ayala firm indicated that the approach will be more “opportunistic” than really setting tangible megawatt-targets.