(Bloomberg) — Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. will sell a fourth of its power subsidiary to Japan utility company JERA Co. Inc for $1.46 billion.
The Philippine conglomerate will sell 25.01% of Aboitiz Power Corp., while a privately held company of the Aboitiz family will sell 1.99%, giving JERA a 27% stake in the Philippines’ largest generator. JERA, a venture between TEPCO Fuel & Power Inc. and Chubu Electric Power Co., said it is acquiring all of the 27% stake for $1.58 billion.
“This transaction unlocks significant capital that will be used toward fueling the AEV Group’s growth initiatives,” Aboitiz Equity said in a statement. Potential areas of collaboration include LNG-to-power projects and new technologies, it said.
Aboitiz Power in August said it expects to spend about 190 billion pesos ($3.72 billion) in the next 10 years to build an additional 3,700 megawatts of capacity under its clean energy portfolio.
Electricity demand in the Philippines is expected to grow at an annual rate of 4.2% until 2030, “making the development of electric power infrastructure an urgent priority,” JERA said in separate statement. Nomura Holdings Inc. was the exclusive financial adviser to JERA on the stake purchase.
Shares of Aboitiz Power rose 4.8%, while Aboitiz Equity gained 2.1%, outperforming the Philippine benchmark index’s 0.1% advance.
(Updates with JERA’s comments in 2nd and 5th paragraphs.)
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