Ayala and Aboitiz raise financing for US$1.7 billion Bataan power plant

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GNPower Dinginin Ltd. Company (GNPD) has reached financial closing for the second generator of the $1.7-billion supercritical coal-fired power plant in Bataan, in the Central Luzon region of the Philippines. GNDP is owned by the Ayala group subsidiary AC Energy Holdings Inc. (50%) and Therma Power Inc., a unit of Aboitiz Power Corp. (50%).

Earlier this month ​GNPD signed amended engineering, design, procurement, and construction contracts with Shanghai Electric Power Construction Co. Ltd. and Power Construction Corp. of China Ltd.

The company have secured PHP22 billion (approx. US$436 million) from undisclosed Filipino banks. The project's amended and restated US Dollar and Philippine Peso debt facilities now total approximately US$1.3 billion. The total debt and equity value of the project is approximately US$1.7 billion, including equity provided by sponsors Aboitiz Power Corporation and Ayala Corporation.

This generator will expand the net generating capacity of the power plant to over 1,600 MW. The development of the first 668 MW supercritical coal-fired power plant is well underway, having achieved financial close in September 2016, and beginning construction in January this year. Construction is scheduled for completion by 2019, with the second unit expected to be completed by 2020.

Supercritical power plants are among coal-fired facilities that use “high efficiency, low emission” technologies, which means they harness more heat out of coal compared to conventional coal-fired plants.

The project is intended to support the increasing electricity demand of the Luzon and Visayas islands, which collectively house over 70 million people. 

The lenders were advised by Hogan Lovells, making this is the fourth power project financing in the Philippines that the firm have closed over the past two years.