AC Energy Philippines Inc. has secured the approval of the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) for its acquisition of controlling interest in a solar farm developer in Negros for a total of P2.77 billion from the Philippine Investment Alliance for Infrastructure (PINAI).
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, AC Energy said a document issued by the PCC dated February 13 found that the acquisition was approved as it “will not likely result in substantial lessening of competition.”
The said approval will now grant AC Energy to acquire PINAI’s 70 percent stake in San Carlos Solar Energy Inc. which currently owns and operates a 45 megawatts (MW) solar farm in Negros Occidental that is benefitting from the feed-in-tariff which allows the project to sell electricity at a premium apart from prioritized dispatch.
The Ayala increase ownership interests in a generating asset with stable cash flows at a reasonable cost.
AC Energy earlier this month also secured the PCC nod for its acquisition of more stakes in the 81 MW Caparispisan wind farm in Ilocos Norte for P2.7 billion.
PINAI is a fund composed of Macquarie Infrastructure Holdings (Philippines) Pte. Ltd., Langoer Investments Holding B.V. and the Government Service Insurance System.
Based on equity interest in power generation businesses, the entire AC Energy Group already owns approximately 1.7 gigawatts (GW) of generation capacity in operations and under construction as it aspires to exceed 5 GW of attributable capacity and generate at least fifty percent of energy from renewables by 2025.
