ACEN reduces stake in Dutch holding firm

MANILA, Philippines — ACEN Corp. has reduced its stake in a Dutch holding company which has interests in geothermal power plants in Indonesia.

ACEN, in a stock exchange filing, said subsidiary ACEN Renewables International Pte Ltd. has sold 2,424 ordinary shares representing 24.24 percent of the outstanding capital stock of ACEHI Netherlands B.V. to Star Energy Oil & Gas Pte Ltd. (SEOG).

SEOG is part of the Star Energy Group, ACEN’s current partner for the Salak and Darajat geothermal power plants in Indonesia.

ACEHI Netherlands, on the other hand, is a Dutch holding company that has a 19.8 percent ownership interest in the Salak and Darajat geothermal power plants. It has become a jointly controlled entity by ACEN Renewables and SEOG following the sale by ACEN Renewables of shares in the holding company.

“Modest selldown of our position to achieve highly attractive value realization, while still retaining a meaningful ownership in ACEHI Netherlands, and ultimately, in the Salak and Darajat geothermal projects,” ACEN said.

ACEN did not disclose the value of the transaction, but said the selling price is below 10 percent of ACEN’s consolidated assets using the Philippine Stock Exchange’s materiality thresholds.

To strengthen its presence in Indonesia, ACEN earlier formed part of a consortium of Star Energy Geothermal (Salak-Darajat) B.V. which operates the 271-megawatt (MW) Darajat and 377-MW Salak geothermal plants in West Java.

ACEN, the listed energy platform of the Ayala Group, is targeting to have 20 gigawatts (GW) of renewables capacity by 2030, making it be the largest listed renewables platform in Southeast Asia.

The company expects the geographic mix of its portfolio by 2030 to include eight GW of clean energy projects in the Philippines which will remain its core market, five GW in Australia, three GW in Indonesia and other markets, as well as two GW each in Vietnam and India.

ACEN currently has about 4,300 MW of attributable capacity from owned facilities in the country and abroad, with a renewable share of 98 percent, which is among the highest in the region.