First Gen unit secures P15-B loan for Casecnan operations
Fresh River Lakes Corp. (FRLC), owner and operator of the 165-megawatt Casecnan hydroelectric power plant located in Nueva Ecija, has secured a P15-billion loan from various banks.
The loan provided by BDO Unibank Inc., Bank of the Philippine Islands and Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. will be used to pay back its parent, Lopez-led First Gen Corp., which bankrolled the acquisition of the hydro facility.
“If you recall, we need to cover the operation of Casecnan, and the way we funded that is from First Gen,” First Gen president and COO Francis Giles Puno said on the sidelines of the company’s event held on Monday.
FRLC acquired the Casecnan hydroelectric power plant via a government auction.
“Now, what we did is the FRLC that owns Casecnan became the borrowing entity,” he explained. “That’s there to finance the original acquisition, so we can pay back to the parent.”
In a stock exchange disclosure on Monday, First Gen said these loan facilities would enable them to sustain their business of delivering cleaner energy sources through its portfolio of renewable facilities.
“This latest financing will further strengthen our ability to continue delivering a competitive and dependable portfolio of clean energy to the nation,” First Gen chief financial officer Emmanuel Singson said.
Singson also said hydro facilities play a key role in delivering clean energy solutions to its customers and are “vital for the country’s energy security and decarbonization goals.”
Prior to this, First Gen disclosed tapping a P10-billion loan from BDO for the same purpose, noting that the transaction reflected the support in bolstering the supply reliability in Luzon, particularly the “critical” projects.
Puno previously said that BDO had been extending financial support for “its most transformative projects.”
According to the company executive, the P15-billion financing from three financial institutions would be the last to be obtained by First Gen for the hydro facility, which will be integrated into the firm’s other hydro assets over the next five years.
A subsidiary of listed conglomerate First Philippine Holdings Corp., First Gen has 3,668.2 megawatts of total installed capacity from a portfolio of 33 power facilities.
