SP New Energy Corp. (SPNEC) announced on Friday that Manuel Pangilinan had stepped down as president and CEO but would retain the chairmanship of the firm.

He will be replaced by Emmanuel Rubio, who was just recently named president and CEO of Meralco PowerGen Corp. (MGen) after retiring from Aboitiz Power Corp.

SPNEC is a listed renewable subsidiary of MGen tasked with constructing the Terra Solar project, a 3.5-gigawatt solar and 4-gigawatt-hour battery storage facility touted as the largest of its kind in the world.

It will be located in Bulacan and Nueva Ecija and is slated to be completed by 2027.

SPNEC also disclosed that it assigned the rights, title, and interest of the Terra project to Terra Solar Philippines, Inc. (TSPI) in order to prepare for new investments for the energy facility.

The company subscribed to an additional 1,051,850,000 shares of TSPI in order to support the business unit's application for an increase in its authorized capital stock.

Pangilinan earlier this year said that the firm was negotiating with prospective foreign partners to take up a 40 percent stake and help finance the solar project, which is worth around P200 billion.

SPNEC's share price went up by P0.03 to P1.03 on Friday.