Aboitiz Equity Ventures expects 500 MW of new power capacity in 2019

MANILA, Philippines — Aboitiz Equity Ventures (AEV), the holding company of the Cebu-based conglomerate, expects over 500 megawatts of new attributable power capacity to come in next year.

AEV chief finance officer Manuel Lozano said 2019 would be a good year for the company.

On power, the company expects demand across businesses to be fuelled by the country’s strong economic growth.

“We expect demand across our businesses to be fueled by GDP growth. For power, we expect over 500 MW of new attributable capacity to come in. These are from La Trinidad Hydro with 19 MW, Diinginin thermal (267 MW) and Cebu thermal (240 MW).

La Trinidad Hydro broke ground last year and is expected to produce 62 million kilowatt-hours of clean and renewable energy annually starting in 2019.

In 2016, AboitizPower subsidiary Therma Power Inc. bought a 66.1 percent stake in GNPower Mariveles Coal Plant Ltd. Co. and a 40 percen interest in GNPower Dinginin Ltd. Co.

AEV has a target to increase its energy capacity to 4,000 megawatts (MW) by 2020.

It is also readying the Cebu plant in Toledo Cebu.

Lozano said 2019 would be the first full year of newly-acquired Gold Coin Management Holdings Ltd., one of Asia’s largest privately owned agribusiness corporations.

“We expect total feed milling capacity across our food group to quadruple from about one million metric tons to over four million metric tons,” he said.

The acquisition of Gold Coin – Pilmico’s international largest investment to date – allows AEV to expand in 11 Asia Pacific countries given Gold Coin’s strong presence in the region.

Gold Coin, which is based in Singapore, is a major producer of animal feeds and operates 20 livestock and aqua feed mills across 11 countries in Asia.

Lozano said the company has enough funds to cover its capital expenditures this year.

“We do not have an exact capex figure yet, but it shouldn’t be too far from this year’s allocated amount,” he said.

For this year, the company has set aside about P77 billion for capex.