Lopez’s FPH sets P57-B capex for 2025
Lopez family-led First Philippine Holdings Inc. (FPH) will spend P57 billion this year, mostly to fund the expansion of its energy and real estate units.
Emmanuel Singson, FPH chief financial officer, told reporters last week their subsidiaries would fund their capital expenditures (capex) mostly through borrowing, noting there would be no fundraising at the FPH level.
“The subsidiaries will be able to finance it through their own leverage,” the CFO said.
He noted this year’s budget was lower than the actual spending of more than P70 billion last year. This was because its energy business, First Gen Corp., last year spent at least $1 billion (roughly P55.8 billion), of which $526 million (P29 billion) was used to fund its takeover of the 165-megawatt Casecnan hydroelectric power plant.
This year, First Gen will again get the bulk of FPH’s capital outlays at 60 percent, or around P34 billion.
According to Singson, this will be used mostly to bankroll the geothermal expansion of Energy Development Corp., FPH’s renewable energy firm.
The remaining P22 billion will be spent on FPH’s real estate business under Rockwell Land Corp. and First Philippine Industrial Park (FPIP).
Rockwell Land is set to pursue more horizontal projects in the high-end market this year, especially since this segment was shielded from the current weakness of the property sector.
“What Rockwell has done to diversify [its portfolio] is rather than condominiums, it pursued horizontal [projects],” FPH president Francis Giles Puno said. “The market prefers horizontal developments because they already have a lot, and it’s also easier to develop.”
Puno noted they were likewise optimistic about FPIP, with the company set to welcome new locators. These include the global development center of technology firm Dyson and the expanded aircraft seating module production of Collins Aerospace.
