New Mirant Phils owners eye $2.8-B JBIC loan

The new owners of Mirant Philippines Inc. — Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) and Marubeni Corp. — are now in the final stages of negotiation for a $2.8-billion financing package from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC).

After acquiring Atlanta-based Mirant Corp.’s portfolio in the Philippines, the consortium has tapped JBIC to partially finance the purchase.

Of the winning bid’s cash value of $3.1 billion, the remaining $300 million will be financed through equity contribution of TEPCO and Marubeni Corp.

Meanwhile, highly-reliable industry sources said the consortium has approved the appointment of Federico E. Puno, president of Marubeni Philippines Inc., to head the new company that will take over the newly-acquired Mirant assets.

It was also learned that the turnover of the assets to the new owners in June this year would push through as scheduled.

Puno is also the president of the San Roque Power Corp. which is also operated by Marubeni. He was a former president of the National Power Corp. during the time of President Estrada.

According to the same sources, Puno is now overseeing the smooth transition for the entry of the new owners of Mirant Philippines.

One of the concerns being addressed by the new management, sources said, are the legal issues lodged against the previous management.

It was learned that the employees of Mirant Philippines have pending petitions for them to be granted separation packages as stipulated in the purchase and sale agreement (PSA) signed by US firm Mirant Corp. and the winning bidders.

Last month, top officials of Marubeni and TEPCO called on President Arroyo to express their keen interest to expand their operation in the Philippines once they take over Mirant’s assets.

Specifically, the Japanese group committed to expand the capacity of Mirant’s Pagbilao power facility by 400 megawatts.

In turn, Energy Secretary Raphael P.M. Lotilla said the new owners would not have problems securing the consent of the government for the takeover of Mirant’s assets.

Under the new management, Mirant is currently working to put back on line the operations of the 1,200-megawatt Sual coal-fired power facility which was shut down since August last year due to problems on its turbines.

Placing the Sual’ plant’s operations back to normal is one of the pre-conditions to the assets’ turnover.

It was learned that Sual unit 2 with 600-MW capacity is expected to resume commercial operations this month.