Malaysian investment fund Emissary Capital Partners Sdn Bhd (Emissary Capital) and its Filipino partner New Wave Strategic Holdings Inc. (New Wave) are eyeing to inject $50 million or P2.75 billion capital for renewable energy (RE) projects in the Philippines.

The proposal presented to President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., during his recent state visit to Malaysia, would be for the partner-companies to advance the development of up to 1,000 megawatts of RE capacity, emphasizing that the “immediate focus includes solar and wind farms located in Northern Luzon.”

At this stage, however, there are no details yet on the targeted projects such as those on actual breakdown of megawatt-installations per technology as well as the specific siting of these clean energy builds.

On that 1.0-gigawatt scale of RE facilities buildup in the solar and wind segments, the partner-firms emphasized in a press statement that this could generate up to $1.5 billion worth of foreign direct investments.

New Wave Director Enrique Y. Gonzalez highlighted that “with Emissary’s entry into the Philippines, we are providing more founders and entrepreneurs access to growth capital as well as a regional network that can help them expand across SEA (Southeast Asia).”

New Wave is a subsidiary of investment holding firm IP E-Game Ventures Inc. which is into interactive gaming and content distribution not just in the Philippines, but also across regional and global markets.

According to Gonzalez, “our value proposition is more than capital. We help businesses scale within the Philippines and can open up regional Southeast Asia access.”

Emissary Capital Partner Erman Akinci conveyed that “the Philippines presents the most exciting renewable energy market in Southeast Asia for the next 5-10 years.”

He cited the  policy allowing 100 percent foreign ownership for RE investments, primarily in the realm of solar and wind farm developments as the most enticing proposition.

Emissary Capital is a boutique investment firm that is headquartered in Kuala Lumpur and it has been targeting suite of investments within the Southeast Asian region, including those on RE ventures.

Akinci further noted that “cross-border investment and trade will ultimately benefit the entire region and help ASEAN meet its collective goals. We hope our fund can contribute to this goal as well as generate healthy returns.”

Beyond providing financial support to projects, Emissary Capital and New Wave indicated that the other area of their strength is on “leveraging partnership with engineering, procurement, and construction contractors to bring in more investors in the country.”

The RE sector is an investment space that the Philippine government has been actively promoting – primarily to foreign investors, because this is the linchpin to the country’s energy transition agenda.