Citicore Power plans IPO

Citicore Power, a sister company of construction giant Megawide, Construction Corp., is set to go public when it has achieved a sizeable portfolio of renewable energy, a ranking official said.

“( An IPO) is possible for Citicore Power as soon as we accumulate or build a sizeable portfolio of renewable energy. Sizeable would be around 700-800 megawatts,” said Citicore chief financial officer Oliver Tan.

Initially, Citicore is planning to roll out 322 megawatts of renewable energy capacity in the four to five years.

Tan said the power projects in the pipeline include solar, hydropower and biomass.

“We have a total of 250-MW solar farm to be rolled out within the year together with Solar Philippines,” he said, referring to the tie-up announced last week for solar farms in Luzon and Visayas which the two companies plan to build in the next two years.

Tan said that alongside this, Citicore Power is also planning a 60- MW hydropower project in Luzon, which the company plans to start construction by early next year and complete in roughly four years time.

“We also have 12-MW biomass project in Visayas to be rolled out also early next year,” Tan said, adding that this would take roughly 14 to 15 months to complete.

“So that would be a total of 322 MW,” he added.

The company, serving as Megawide’s first foray into the lucrative power sector, prefers renewable energy projects.

“Our group has long been advocates of green technology. In fact Megawide are forefronts of using green construction technology henceforth we would like to apply the same thing in our power business,” he said.

Tan said venturing into gas may be too far ahead, noting that gas is for the “big boys.”

“Eventually yes but we’ll start first with renewable energy,” he said.