AboitizPower to issue P27 B retail bonds

Aboitiz Power Corp. is issuing P27 billion worth of retail bonds towards the latter part of the year to finance projects.

Proceeds will be used to fund potential acquisitions and investments and refinance existing debt, AboitizPower said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange.

The bonds will be issued in one or more tranches depending on market condition.

AboitizPower plans to offer the bonds in the third or fourth quarter.

The amount represents the balance of the P30 billion bonds registered under the shelf registration program of the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) last year.

The company is looking at completing five projects with a total capacity of 828.3 megawatts (MW). These include the 69-MW Manolo Fortich hydropower plant in Bukidnon and the 8.5-MW Maris Canal hydro project in Isabela through its subsidiary SN AboitizPower.

Together with its partners, AboitizPower is also in the process of completing the 340MW Therma Visayas baseload power plant in Toledo, Cebu and the 400-MW Pagbilao power plant expansion.

AboitizPower has likewise partnered with Vivant Corp. for the Toledo power project, while the Pagbilao plant expansion is in partnership with TeaM Energy Corp.

In a separate disclosure, AboitizPower announced the “voluntary early cessation of extended tenure” of its president and CEO Antonio Moraza effective end-August.

He will also vacate his director post in Aboitiz Equity Ventures effective Aug. 31.

The group’s top executives deferred their retirement from 2014 to 2019.

AEV serves as the Aboitiz family’s holding firm, which holds interests in power generation and distribution through Aboitiz Power Corp., banking (Union Bank), property (Aboitiz Land), and food (Pilmico Foods Corp.).