Alsons Consolidated Resources Inc. (ACR) of the Alcantara group has listed its P1.0 billion commercial papers issuance with the Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corporation (PDEx), according to the company’s disclosure with the Philippine Stock Exchange.
The P1.0 billion issue forms the second part of its P2.5 billion CP program that was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) two years ago.
The Alcantara firm said the proceeds from this fund raising will partly bankroll the pipelined power projects of the company – primarily those on renewable energy (RE) installations, as well as expansion on thermal power plant development.
The power group of the company is continuously beefing up its portfolio – but it is making clear that the next focus of developments will be RE ventures – primarily hydropower plant projects in Visayas and Mindanao.
For this year, the major project that the company is advancing to implementation is its P16 billion San Ramon Power Inc. coal-fired power plant in Zamboanga City that has been designed for a capacity yield of 105 megawatts.
ACR is targeting to award the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract of that project within this quarter, so notice-to-proceed on construction can be served early part of next year.
The Zamboanga power facility is anticipated on stream by year 2023; and this is seen as a tailor-fit solution to the lingering power supply predicaments of the city.
Despite the constraints posed by the niggling coronavirus pandemic, the company is also gaining traction on the construction of its 14.5MW Siguil run-of-river hydropower project in Maasim, Sarangani, which is eyed to reach commercial operations in 2022.
ACR Executive Vice President Tirso G. Santillan Jr. guaranteed that “the company’s various power projects remain on-track to begin commercial operations,” primarily because of the quick recovery of Mindanao from the scourge of the health crisis.
He thus stressed that the company’s plants will “continue to operate and supply power to our customers even as we continue to try our best to help the power distributors and consumers who have been adversely affected financially by the pandemic.”
The company currently has 468 megawatts of power capacity, and that scale of portfolio makes it one of the biggest power producers in Mindanao grid.
Its recently completed major power project is the US$570 million Sarangani Energy Corp (SEC) coal-fired facility, which is now supplying 210MW to off-taker utilities in various parts of Mindanao.
The Sarangani plant is similarly hailed as a significant income-driver for the Alcantara firm, especially after the completion and commercial operations of its second unit of 105MW capacity in 2019. The first unit of the same capacity had been on-line since 2016.