Alcantara-led Alsons Consolidated Resources Inc. has greenlighted the second tranche of its commercial papers (CP) sale that could fetch P1.0 billion proceeds to partly bankroll ongoing projects.
The issuance is part of the P2.5 billion commercial papers program that the publicly listed firm has registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2018.
ACR said the cash yield from the CP float will “provide funding for the company’s ongoing projects,” primarily the hydro and thermal power facilities that are now at varying stages of implementation.
The company has been previously granted with PRS A plus (corp) or “stable outlook” credit rating, with the PhilRatings agency emphasizing its “above average capacity to meet financial commitments relative to other Philippine corporates.”
A big-ticket power plant development that the Alcantara firm is advancing is its P16 billion San Ramon Power Inc. (SRPI), a coal-fired power plant sited in Zamboanga City.
The blueprinted 105-megawatt thermal generating plant is slated to have its engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract awarded by the third quarter of this year, so it can keep pace with the targeted commercial operations in 2023.
Beyond that power plant project, the investment focus of the company will pivot to renewable energy (RE) installations – primarily run-of-river hydropower projects for targeted sites in Mindanao and Visayas.
As emphasized by ACR Chairman and President Tomas I. Alcantara, “in the next few years, in terms of the number of power facilities, renewable energy will constitute the largest segment in Alsons’ power portfolio.”
Being pushed forward to completion is the company’s 14.5-megawatt Siguil hydropower project in Sarangani, which is targeted on commercial stream by year 2022; and the next ones are two hydropower projects in Zamboanga del Norte and Negros Occidental.
“We expect that renewable energy contribution to ACR earnings will be more than 35-percent in the mid-term once our first three hydro plants are operating,” Philip Edward B. Sagun, deputy chief financial officer of ACR said.
He added their long term trajectory on RE investments will warrant commercial developments of at least eight hydropower projects; and when that is concretized, “we project that renewable energy contribution to ACR earnings will be around 45-percent.”
At present, the company’s financial performance is broadly contingent on the revenue stream and bottom line yield from its two-phased Sarangani coal-fired power plant that has an aggregate capacity of 210MW.