The Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) targets to hold a new round of bidding for the privatization of the 650 megawatts (MW) Malaya thermal power plant (TPP) and its underlying land in Pililla, Rizal by the end of the week.
Irene Joy Garcia, PSALM president and chief executive officer, said the state firm aims ‘‘to find an acceptable way of reducing the minimum bid price’’ to make the property more interesting to bidders.
Last November, Malaya TPP’s privatization failed for the second time as no bidder met the minimum bid price of P4,481,796,017.
Garcia said PSALM is convincing the Commission on Audit to approve the request for a discounting mechanism that will allow PSALM to lower the said minimum bid price.
The plan is to reduce by P400 million to 500 million the minimum bid price. This amount is equivalent to the yearly cost of running the facility.
In the most recent bidding of the property, four pre-qualified bidders passed the initial stage including Panasia Energy, Inc., Phinma Energy Corp, Hill Trench Power, Inc. and Therma Central Visayas Inc.
However, right before the deadline for submission of the financial bid, Fort Pilar Energy, Inc., Panasia Energy, Inc. and AC Energy Philippines Inc. sent letters to PSALM explaining that they cannot meet the minimum bid price.
One other bidder, D.M. Wenceslao and Associates Inc., submitted a sealed bid but the process was declared a failure since there was no other bid submitted.
