San Miguel to raise US$400 million loan for Limay coal plant project

The San Miguel Corporation (SMC) has announced that it will be raising a US$400 million loan to bankroll the construction of its 300 MW Limay coal power project in the Philippines.

The financing of the project will be spit into two parts: a US$100 million seven year working capital facility and a US$300 million seven year term loan.

Standard Chartered, Mizuho Bank and DBS Bank have been approached by San Miguel's Global Power Holdings Corporation as potential financiers of the loan facility.

Ramon S. Ang, President of the San Miguel Corporation, stated that the loans incurred will be repaid in typical project finance fashion, directly from the power plant's revenue stream, once commercial operation begins.

Located across the bay from Manila in Limay, Bataan, the project will be coal powered and will have a generating capacity of 300 MW.

The first phase will consist of two 150 MW generating units, scheduled to be in operation in 2016.

The project is designed to be expandable, with second and third phases of 300 MW each, planned to be on-line in 2017 and 2018 respectively. San Miguel is targeting a total generating capacity of 900 MW by the end of 2018.

The San Miguel Group has several power projects under construction and disclosed its intentions to expand their current power generation portfolio of 2,685 MW by an additional 3,000 MW.

The firm is currently evaluating potential sites for up to 1,200 MW of capacity in Southern and Central Luzon, whilst planning capacity extensions of up to 600 MW in Cebu and Leyte.