Gotianuns eye return to power business

MANILA, Philippines - The family of tycoon Andrew Gotianun is making a comeback in the power generation business and at the same time expand into utilities to ride the wave of opportunities offered by these sectors.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Filinvest Development Corp. (FDC), the investment vehicle of the Gotianun family, said it is in the planning stages of adding infrastructure and utilities to its business portfolio currently consisting of real estate, banking and financial services, and sugar manufacturing.

FDC said it is considering two potential clean coal-fired power generation projects – a 150-megawatt project in the Visayas.

 In addition, FDC said it is conducting a feasibility study for a water desalination facility at the same Visayas site. The project will be operated using off-peak power from the planned power project.

Moreover, FDC is also in talks with potential equipment suppliers and potential power off-takers with respect to each project.

FDC, which used to own East Asia Power Corp., is currently applying for permits from the relevant regulatory authorities.

East Asia is a publicly-listed power holding company that owns and has operated, through its subsidiaries, power-generating facilities in Metro Manila with a total installed capacity of 242 megawatts.

This time, the Filinvest Group is hoping to take advantage of strong demand for electricity in Visayas.

FDC owns Filinvest Land Inc. (FLI), Filinvest Alabang Inc.(FAI) and East West Banking Corp. (EWBC). It also owns 100 percent of Pacific Sugar Holdings Corp.

The Filinvest Group has been in the residential business for over 45 years and has developed over 2,000 hectares of raw land into homes for more than 110,000 families, as well as over 600,000 square meters of office/retail and high-rise residential space.

With its diversification into non-property businesses, the group said it expects to benefit from a wide base of growth businesses in property, banking and financial services, and power generation.

FDC is raising its capitalization from P10 billion to P17 billion, consisting of five billion common shares and two billion preferred shares, with a par value of P1.