Sun Life’s Philippine unit to invest in Mindanao power plant

Canadian insurance firm Sun Life Financial Inc. has given its Philippine unit the go-ahead to invest in a power project in Mindanao, in what would be its first local investment in infrastructure in the country.

Sun Life of Canada (Philippines) Inc. president and chief executive Rizalina G. Mantaring recently told reporters that the approval was secured about three weeks ago. She said:

“One of the things that [Finance] Secretary [Cesar V.] Purisima has been challenging insurance companies is to invest in infrastructure. On our side, we’ve been telling the government that we want to invest in infrastructure because it’s a great match—long-term assets, long-term liabilities. We’ve really been working on it… And finally, we got the approval from our headquarters for Sun Life to make its first infrastructure investment in this country.”

The investment will be in the form of equity funding—a “private fixed-income investment.” But more details will be provided when the approvals from regulators such as the Insurance Commission were obtained.

The Mindanao power plant project is expected to be operational by the third quarter of 2018.

Mantaring added the company, with assets under management of $846 billion, was also interested to invest in public-private partnership (PPP) projects, as its parent company does in Canada.