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SPC Power Corp. targets to remit the down payment for its
acquisition of recently privatized government diesel plants within
the month.
A company official, who asked not to be named,
said that SPC plans to pay 40 percent or $2.344 million of the total
price to the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp.
(Psalm) for the 46.5-megawatt Panay and 22-megawatt Bohol diesel
power plants within the month.
“Based on the bid documents, SPC should give
the 40 percent before the closing date. We are ready to pay in the
second half of January because our target closing is end of
January,” the source said.
The official said that SPC would be financing
the down payment through internally generated funds but it may
resort to borrowings for the balance.
SPC, formerly Salcon Power Corp., won the
bidding for the said plants in an auction conducted by the
government’s power sector privatization unit in November for $5.86
million.
Under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of
2001, Psalm is mandated to privatize 70 percent of government-owned
power plants as well as contracted capacities with independent power
producers.
The other bidders for the Panay-Bohol package
were Therma Power-Visayas, a Philippine corporation owned by Aboitiz
Power Corp. and Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corp. of the
Philippine Investment Management Inc. (Phinma), which submitted bids
of $1 million and $4.73 million, respectively.
SPC is jointly owned by Korean Electric Power
Corp. with a minority interest and local investors making up the
majority in the company.
SPC was organized in 1994 and won the contract
for state-owned National Power Corp.’s 203.8-megawatt Naga power
plant complex under a Rehabilitation, Operation, Maintenance and
Management agreement.
It sells the electricity generated by the plant
to Napocor under a take-or-pay agreement.
-- Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo
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