Prime Infra, First Gen seal P50-B gas deal
Prime Infrastructure Capital Inc. of billionaire and port tycoon Enrique Razon Jr. is pumping up its game in the power sector, as the group completed its P50-billion takeover of First Gen Corp.’s gas facilities.
The group said Monday it had consummated the 60-percent buyout of six of the Lopez Group’s assets.
This came just less than a month after Prime Infra and First Gen secured the Philippine Competition Commission’s go signal.
The assets include the 1,000-megawatt (MW) Santa Rita Power Plant, 500-MW San Lorenzo power plant, 450-MW San Gabriel power plant, 97-MW Avion power plant, the proposed 1,200-MW Santa Maria power plan and the interim offshore liquefied natural gas terminal.
First Gen will continue to hold the remaining 40 percent.
“These gas-fired power plants have played a critical role in supporting the Philippine economy and advancing the decarbonization of our energy mix,” Prime Infra president and chief executive officer Guillaume Lucci said in a statement Monday.
“Our goal is to continue growing this platform together with First Gen to accelerate the country’s transition away from a power system that is still coal-dependent,” the executive added.
Lucci said this would also beef up the group’s efforts to strengthen the country’s energy security, especially as they conduct drilling and exploration activities for the Malampaya gas field.
The Malampaya gas project is the country’s only indigenous commercial source of natural gas, supplying 20 percent of Luzon’s power needs.
“With this transaction, our Prime Infra assets are now fully connected across the energy value chain, from upstream to midstream to downstream,” Lucci said.
First Gen, meanwhile, intends to use the proceeds from the acquisition to expand its renewable energy portfolio, with the bulk seen to go to its geothermal projects.
