Citicore, Singapore firm team up for wind venture

MANILA, Philippines — Citicore Renewable Energy Corp. (CREC), chaired by tycoon Edgar Saavedra, is teaming up with Singapore-based Levanta Renewables for its maiden wind energy investments.

Under the deal signed last Friday, CREC and Levanta will establish a joint venture company for the development of four onshore wind projects with a combined capacity of 375 megawatts (MW) across Luzon and Visayas.

CREC said the move, subject to certain customary conditions, is expected to reach financial closing in the next few months.

Financial details of the deal were not immediately made available.

“We are entering the next phase of CREC’s journey to power a brighter future for the Philippines with the start of our first four onshore wind projects, and there is no better partner to take this step with than Levanta,” CREC president Oliver Tan said.

Tan said the global partner would “bring decades of extensive technical and operational experience to this partnership and to our onshore wind industry.”

Levanta is a renewable energy (RE) platform that operates across Southeast Asia and is backed by UK-based investment house Actis, which earlier sealed a $600-million solar deal with tycoon Manuel V. Pangilinan’s Manila Electric Co.

“This partnership marks Levanta’s entry into the Philippine wind market, serving as a key step toward its goal of achieving 1.5 GW (gigawatts) of operating capacity across Southeast Asia by 2028,” Levanta CEO Sudhir Nunes said.

Nunes said Levanta is banking on this collaboration to pursue more utility-scale green energy projects in the country.

Further, the strategic tie-up is also expected to beef up CREC’s diversified portfolio of RE projects, with its wind pipeline targeting three GW of operating generation capacity over the medium and long term.

It will complement the company’s target of achieving five GW of solar energy capacity over the next four years or until 2028.

CREC, a pure-play RE platform focused on and committed to the development of clean energy projects, currently operates 10 solar assets with a combined installed capacity of 285.1 MW.

Earlier this year, the company secured around $12.5 million from the UK government’s flagship Mobilist program.