Vivant sets P30 billion budget for RE, infrastructure projects

MANILA, Philippines — Cebu-based Vivant Corp. is spending P30 billion in the next five years to raise it renewable energy (RE) generation and grow its infrastructure business, particularly water-related projects.

During the company’s virtual stockholders’ meeting yesterday, Vivant CEO Arlo Sarmiento said the group is looking at a capital expenditure (capex) of P25 billion for power and P5 billion for infrastructure until 2027.

The company is looking to finance this by tapping the debt market, given that the group is still very much under leveraged, Vivant senior vice president of corporate shared services and chief corporate officer Carmela Franco said in a media briefing after the meeting.

“Whether to fund this via green bond, that is one of the options we’re looking at. Other options we’re looking at is the issuance of corporate notes or syndicate loan,” she said.

For the power business, Vivant is targeting a generating capacity of 500 megawatts (MW), of which 20 percent are from RE sources by 2023, and 1,000 MW with a 30 percent RE generation by 2030, Sarmiento said.

As of end-2021, the company had a capacity of 382 MW from fossil fuel-based plants.

To meet its target next year, Vivant president Emil Andre Garcia said the firm is looking at acquisitions and greenfield solar projects.

“Power systems in the country are not yet ready to veer away from conventional plants. We intend to keep operating these plants while we start taking concrete steps in expanding our RE portfolio,” he said.

Based on its presentation, the company is looking to develop 196 MW of wind farms, 212 MW of solar plants, 62 MW of hybrid power projects and 129 MW of solar rooftop.

More than half of these projects are in Luzon while the balance will be located in Visayas.

“Around 90 percent of the capacities in Luzon are solar. While for the wind, we’re looking at the Visayas region,” Garcia said, noting the percentages are based on project count.

Garcia said most of the projects would be developed solely by Vivant.

For joint ventures, Vivant is in talks with both foreign and local companies for the wind project.

“As far as foreign partnerships are concerned, we look to them for the technical know how they can bring in. As far as local partnerships are concerned, we look at local partnerships in the possibility of contracting capacity or even equity. Typically that’s how we look at partnerships, foreign or local,” Sarmiento said.

For the infrastructure side, Vivant is eyeing to develop bulk water, water treatment, and water concession projects.

“For infrastructure, most of our initiatives right now are concentrated in water. For water, we’d like to be present in the different segments of the industry, namely bulk water supply, water distribution, waste water and water engineering,” Vivant senior vice president for infrastructure Jess Anthony Garcia said.