CREIT revises  investment criteria

MANILA, Philippines — Citicore Energy REIT Corp. (CREIT), the country’s first renewable energy real estate investment trust, has revised its investment criteria to expand and accelerate po-tential investments that can be folded into the company.

Based on its three-year investment strategy report disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange, CREIT has removed “achieved successful plant testing and commissioning, with stable offtake contracts for 100 percent of the power plant’s expected generation output” as an investment criteria.

“The removal of the said criteria was meant to expand and accelerate possible investments that can be folded into CREIT,” it said.

With the revised criteria, the company expects to be able to realize lease income earlier as renewable energy properties can now be leased out to solar plant developers even during construction stage.

This, in turn, would provide earlier income stream to the company’s shareholders, it said.

CREIT said it still has an option to purchase the power plant and lease it out to the plant operator upon successful plant testing, commissioning and securing of offtake contracts.

The company said its revised investment criteria was approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission last month, subject to some procedural compliances.

CREIT’s principal investment strategy is to invest in income-generating renewable energy real estate properties.

The company aims to become the largest renewable energy landlord in the country. 

Among CREIT’s investment criteria for a potential new renewable energy property is that it should primarily be a site suitable for solar power plants, but may include other renewable energy properties available in the market.

The property should also be located in underdeveloped areas where the company has completed and validated the availability of resources and the potential of such area for future township developments to drive long-term appreciating land value.

“Through cooperation with the Citicore Group, the company is committed to growing its portfolio through acquisition of relevant assets from the Citicore Group or third parties under mutu-ally acceptable terms,” CREIT said.

“The company will also continuously seek to leverage the Citicore Group’s market knowledge, its established industry relationships, and its vast repository of real estate expertise, as well as to jointly explore potential synergies with members of the Citicore Group,” it said.

CREIT primarily serves as the commercial REIT platform of the Citicore Group.

The company’s REIT asset portfolio is geographically spread out and generates rental revenues from the three main island groups, Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

CREIT intends to issue green bonds this year to fund the acquisition of new real estate properties and further cement its position as the largest renewable energy landlord in the country.