EDC eyes P3.5 B borrowing

Lopez-led Energy Development Corp. (EDC) plans to borrow P3.5 billion towards the end of the year to refinance maturing loans, a company official said.

EDC vice president for corporate finance Erwin Avante said the company may need to raise funds to refinance a maturing loan in December.

“We have a P3.5-billion loan maturing in December this year so it’s a refinancing,” he said.

The maturing P3.5-billion retail bond, issued in 2009, was used to partly finance outstanding loans, projects and other general corporate purposes.

Avante also said the company is also open to raise fresh funds if there are merger and acquisition opportunities.

EDC has programmed P14 billion for capital expenditures this year to increase the reliability of its aging facilities and for drilling projects.

In 2015, its capex was around P10-12 billion.

EDC said this year’s budget will address reliability issues of its 3x112.5-megawatt (MW) Tongonan geothermal plant in Leyte to mitigate the loss in revenues.

The outages of Tongonan has cost the company about P700 million in revenues last year.

Part of the 2016 budget would also be dedicated to the optimization of the 125MW Upper Mahiao goethermal plant.