Alternergy to raise more project funds

ALTERNERGY Holdings Corp. said Tuesday that it would continue lining up capital-raising initiatives for the completion of its renewable energy (RE) projects.

The company's chief financial officer, Carmen Diaz, told a briefing on Monday that several such activities were scheduled for this month.

"In the final stages are the project financing processes of both our Alabat wind power project and our Solana solar project, which will be done with local commercial banks, and we hope to close these in June 2024," Diaz said.

The Alabat and Solana projects are expected to cost P5.33 billion and P1 billion, respectively.

"We are also very busy raising the second tranche of our green corporate loan," Diaz continued, adding that they hope to conclude this in the second half of the year.

Altogether, Alternergy said it was in the final stages of raising P20 billion over a period of 15 months since its initial public offering in March last year. The initial target was to raise that amount within three to five years.

The fundraising aims to accelerate the construction of up to 204 megawatts (MW) of new capacity, targeted to come online by 2025. These are the 112-MW Tanay wind power project in Rizal, the 64-MW Alabat project in Quezon, and the 28-MW Solana project in Hermosa, Bataan.

Alternergy President Gerry Magbanua said that roughly P10 billion will be used for the Tanay project, around P7 billion for the Alabat project, and some P1.3 billion for the Solana project, with the remainder to be used "to keep building our pipeline."

Apart from the P1.62 billion raised from its IPO, Alternergy has also generated P1.45 billion from a preferred share issuance. It also recently inked an P8-billion financing facility with Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) and Security Bank Corp. and signed the first tranche of a green loan with BDO Unibank Inc. amounting to P2 billion.

"We are grateful to the financing and investing community who have embraced our innovative funding solutions," Magbanua said.

"The loans so far secured are under the green finance framework we crafted with the Asian Development Bank, while our inaugural IPO had been successful even amidst volatile market sentiments," he added.

"Once the final signings of the remaining P6.30 billion are done, we expect to go back to the drawing board to further plan for the next round of capital-raising activity to reach our medium-term target of 500 MW capacity by 2026."

Beyond these three projects, Magbanua said that Alternergy would move ahead with the development of its project pipeline, which includes the Liberty aqua-voltaic project in Tarlac and the expansion of its solar rooftop power projects.

He also said that the firm was actively pursuing early-stage projects and was now working on capital-raising programs for the undertakings.

Alternergy shares on Monday remained flat at 68 centavos apiece.

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