San Miguel to invest $1.5-B in power plants

Rappler.com

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San Miguel, the biggest privately controlled power producer, wants to grow bigger

MANILA, Philippines – San Miguel Corp., through its power generation arm, is investing $1.5 billion for the construction of its two new power plants, its top official said.

Of this amount, SMC Global Power Holdings Corp. is spending about $1 billion for the construction of a 600-megawatt coal fired-plant in Bataan in northern Luzon and $500 million for another plant in Davao, San Miguel Corp. president and COO Ramon Ang said in a briefing with reporters on the sidelines of Petron Corp., annual stockholders’ meeting.

Construction for the two plants has already started and should be operating by mid-2015, Ang said on Tuesday, May 21.

He said the power generation unit may construct more power plants, depending on the viability and business climate.

“We’re supposed to do more. We’re still evaluating the best option,” he said.

San Miguel is already the country’s biggest privately controlled power producer in terms of “attributable” capacity, or aggregate share of power sold to the grid.

VIEW: Top power players in the Philippines

Both projects will be internally financed. “The (funding) will be in-house. Madami kaming cash (We have a lot of cash,” Ang said.

Earlier, Ang confirmed plans to revive the initial public offering (IPO) of SMC Global that has been shelved in 2011 due to sluggish market conditions

Since 2007, San Miguel has been diversifying its traditional food and drinks portfolio to include heavy industries. The power industry has been one of its main targets, eyeing fatter profits there.

Included in its power portfolio are the 1,200-megawatt Sual coal plant in Pangasinan province, the 1,200 megawatt (MW) Ilijan natural gas-fired facility, and the 345-megawatt San Roque hydroelectric plant.

It sold Limay’s 620-megawatt in 2011.  Read: Why San Miguel sold Limay power plant.

Below is a summary of the SMC Global Power financial performance in 2012:

  • Revenues reached P74.7 billion, a 4% increase. Its Sual, Ilijan, and San Roque plants generated a total of 15,250 gigawatt hours, 6% higher than a year ago
  • Capacity utilization was at 71% compared to 67% in 2011 due to higher bilateral requirements despite various forced outages. Consolidated off-take volume grew 7% to 15,961 GW hours
  • Operating income was at P17.1 billion, up 2%

– Rappler.com

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