ACEN sees 2026 capex at over P80B

ACEN Corp., the energy arm of the Ayala group, is preparing a larger war chest for its renewables expansion next year.

Jonathan Back, the firm’s chief financial officer (CFO), said ACEN’s capital expenditures (capex) for 2026 might exceed P80 billion.

For 2025, the company’s capital spending was set at P70 billion. But Back said ACEN has so far spent “a little over P50 billion.”

“So while we’ve got very large and high-capex projects underway, we do see a diversity of funding sources for those,” he said at a Philippine Stock Exchange event on Thursday,

Aside from the Philippines, ACEN has been investing heavily in other markets to further build up its renewable energy portfolio. It is also present in Australia, Vietnam, India and Lao PDR.

The group currently has 7,000 megawatts (MW) of attributable renewable capacity.

By 2030, the company hopes to have 20,000 MW.

While Back said it was “not a hard target,” the group seeks to take “a more moderate approach to those growth targets.”

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“It was a kind of rallying cry for the company. And truth be told, given the amount of renewable capacity that needs to be built in all of the various markets that we operate in, by global standards, it’s not as big a number as you might think,” he said.

“Nevertheless, given the amount of time that it does take to get, especially these large projects built, and given the desire for us not to have to keep coming to the equity market for funding, we’ve moderated that target,” the CFO added.

Last week, ACEN reported a steep decline in its earnings, dropping 78 percent to P1.8 billion in the first nine months. Its top line logged at P23 billion, down 18 percent from P28 billion.