AC Energy takes full control over Batangas power plant

AC Energy Corp. now fully owns South Luzon Thermal Energy Corp. (SLTEC) after it acquired the 20% ownership interest of Axia Power Holdings Philippines Corp., a unit of Japan-based Marubeni Corp.

In a regulatory filing, AC Energy said it completed the acquisition of Axia’s stake on Thursday. SLTEC operates the 270-megawatt (MW) coal-run power plant in Calaca, Batangas.

“With this acquisition, the Company now owns 100% of SLTEC,” the Ayala-led firm said.

The company and the Marubeni unit had jointly run SLTEC’s coal plant, which has two units each with a capacity of 135 MW.

In 2019, AC Energy Philippines, Inc. (the former name of AC Energy) received authority from its parent firm AC Energy, Inc. to purchase Axia’s ownership stake.

At present, AC Energy has a net attributable capacity of 1,200 MW in the Philippines, with coal projects accounting for 21%.

In a separate regulatory filing on Thursday, the listed power firm said it will no longer proceed with the revision of its power administration and management agreements with its wholly owned subsidiaries.

Its executive committee earlier approved to amend the company’s agreements with CIP II Power Corp. (CIP II), Bulacan Power Generation Corp., and One Subic Power Generation Corp.

The revisions include updating the fixed capacity fees billable to the parent firm and the inclusion of variable capacity fee billable by CIP II and Bulacan Power.

CIP II and Bulacan Power respectively own and operate a 21-MW diesel plant in Bacnotan, La Union and a 52-MW diesel plant in Norzagaray, Bulacan. Meanwhile, One Subic leases a 116-MW diesel plant at the Subic Bay Freeport.

AC Energy, the listed energy platform of Ayala Corp., has around 2,600 MW of attributable capacity across the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, and Australia.

The firm aspires to be the largest listed renewables platform in Southeast Asia as it hopes to build 5,000 MW of renewables capacity by 2025.

AC Energy shares at the local bourse shed 0.18% or two centavos to finish at P11.28 apiece on Thursday. — Angelica Y. Yang