Alsons to secure $290-million financing for coal-fired power plant

MANILA, Philippines - Alcantara-led Alsons Consolidated Resources Inc. (ACR) expects to secure financing for its $290-million coal-fired power plant project in September or October.

The 105-megawatt (MW) coal plant, which is in partnership with Toyota Tsusho Corp., is expected to ease the power supply shortfall in Mindanao, an executive said.

“The next milestone for us is finalizing a financing facility,” ACR chief finance officer Luis Ymson Jr. said in a phone interview.

“I am hoping to have a final signing [with the creditors] before the end of September or early October,” Ymson said.

ACR is partnering with Japan’s Toyota Tsusho, which is buying a 25-percent stake in Sarangani Energy Corp. (SEC), the project proponent of the Sarangani coal plant.

Ymson said the syndicated loan will be led BDO Capital and Investment Corp. It will account for bulk of the financing requirement of the $289-million circulating fluidized bed (CFB) coal plant in Maasim, Sarangani province.

“The ratio we are maintaining is 70 percent debt, 30 percent equity,” Ymson said.

ACR is still finalizing a shareholder agreement with Toyota Tsusho for the equity part of the coal-fired power plant.

“The power station is $289 million, transmission line is $21 million,” Ymson said adding that “The average cost per MW of a coal-fired plant using CFB boiler is now about $2.5 million.”

The facility, which will be in commercial operations early in 2015, will supply power to Southern Cotabato Electric Cooperative II Corp., Agusan Del Norte Electric Cooperative Inc., Agusan Del Sur Electric Cooperative Inc. and Davao del Norte Electric Cooperative Inc.

The Mindanao grid, which needs an average of 1,300 MW daily, lacked an average of 50 MW to 300 MW, resulting in two to four hours of rotating brownouts in the first half.

Ymson said ACR will also prepare for the second phase of SEC’s coal plant, which will add another 105 MW to the Mindanao grid.

“The two-phase capacity of up to 210 MW is intended to help provide a long-term solution to the current power shortage in Mindanao,” ACR said.

To date, the Alcantara group controls and operates the 100-MW bunker-fired power plant of Western Mindanao Power Corp. in Zamboanga City and the 55-MW bunker fuel plant of Southern Philippines Power Corp. in Sarangani.

Aside from power generation, the Alcantaras are also into real estate, aquaculture, agribusiness and services primarily focusing on Mindanao.