ACEN allots P72 billion for capex this year
AYALA-LED ACEN Corp. said it is earmarking about P72 billion for its capital expenditure (capex) budget for the year.
This amount covers international operations and energy projects in the Philippines, ACEN President and Chief Executive Officer Eric T. Francia said during a briefing on Wednesday.
Currently, ACEN holds around 4,700 megawatts (MW) of attributable capacity across the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, and Australia.
The majority of this year’s target spending, about P40 billion, is allocated for the company’s Philippine operations, which will be funded by both internally generated funds and debt, according to ACEN Chief Finance Officer Jon-athan P. Back.
The P40-billion capex for the year will mainly be allocated to existing projects, such as the expansion of solar and wind projects, Mr. Francia said.
“We ended last year with cash in our balance sheet of just under P40 billion. That’s going to go to fund a lot of these capex plus additional financing mostly from bilateral loans,” he said.
Last year, the company allocated a capex budget of between P50 billion and P70 billion for its clean energy projects.
The company’s 2024 capex is also part of its expected spending of $15 billion to achieve its goal of about 20 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy capacity by the end of the decade.
For 2024, Mr. Francia said ACEN has six new projects across all its operations with a total capacity of 1.6 GW. These projects are expected to deliver full output by yearend.
“Today, ACEN has over 3.3 GW of capacity in operations and under commissioning, and about 1.5 GW of capacity under construction. We expect to continue our rapid expansion through 2024 as we work towards our aspiration to reach 20 GW of renewables capacity by 2030,” he said.
The company has also reaffirmed its commitment to transition the company’s power generation portfolio to 100% renewable energy by 2025.
At the local bourse on Wednesday, shares in the company closed five centavos or 1.48% higher at P3.42 apiece. — Ashley Erika O. Jose
