Alternergy to use P20B for RE projects in 5 years

ALTERNERGY Holdings Corp. is planning to invest P20 billion over the next five years to fund renewable energy (RE) projects with varied technologies, its top official said on Tuesday.

“For the entire group in the next three to five years, we are looking at a total capex (capital expenditure) of P20 billion for the lineup of the projects that we have,” Alternergy President Gerry P. Magbanua told reporters.

He said the renewables company is planning to develop run-of-river, solar, and wind energy projects largely funded by debt.

“In the next five years, we’ll have representative projects for each of these technologies and that’s part of the P20 billion capex,” Mr. Magbanua said.

He said the budget will fund about 300 to 350 megawatts (MW) of renewable energy projects, which will include 33-MW solar, 220-MW onshore wind, and 50-MW run-of-river or mini-hydropower facilities.

“We are going to do project financing. We have done this many times in the past for our projects, usually 70-30, 70% funded by debt, 30% by equity,” he said.

Part of the proceeds of the company’s initial public offering (IPO) will fund the capex, Mr. Magbanua added.

Alternergy targets to hold on March 24 an initial public offering of shares to raise up to P1.87 billion. Proceeds from the offering will fund the predevelopment stage of projects in the pipeline.

“For the P20 billion, the equity is around P6 billion, let’s just say 30%,” he said, adding that a portion of the P6 billion or around P3 billion to P3.5 billion “is what Alternergy expects to fund for itself.”

“The goal is to have majority stakes in these projects at least 51%,” Mr. Magbanua said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Magbanua said that Alternergy is currently in talks with foreign and local prospective partners for the development of some of the projects.

“We’re talking to some but we have not closed any partnerships. There [are] a number of interested parties who want to partner with us in other technologies. For example [in] solar, there are a number of companies that have approached us to partner with us,” he said.

The energy company aims to develop up to 1,370 MW of renewable energy sources such as onshore and offshore wind, solar, and run-of-river hydropower projects. — Ashley Erika O. Jose