Aboitiz Power buys stake in Cebu utility firm for P176M

Aboitiz Power Corp. on Monday said it has purchased 48 percent of Cebu Private Power Corp., for P176 million, at the same time buying 50 percent of East Asia Utilities Corp., CPPC’s parent firm, for approximately P131 million. CPPC owns and operates a 70 MW thermal plant in Cebu under a build-operate-transfer contract to supply 62 MW of power to Visayan Electric Co. Inc. In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Aboitiz Power, which is a controlling stakeholder of Veco, said its acquisition of a stake in CPPC will “guarantee CPPC’s continued adherence to its service commitments to Veco and its customers." By contract, CPPC’s thermal plant will revert to Veco in November 2013. However, Aboitiz Power said it would not risk another change in CPPC’s ownership before then, hence the acquisition. In the same disclosure, Aboitiz Power also said that it has acquired 50 million common shares of East Asia Utilities from El Paso Philippines Energy Co. in exchange for the P131 million and the assumption of P878 million in intercompany debt owed to East Asia Utilities. East Asia Utilities owns and operates a 50 megawatt thermal plant in Mactan, Cebu. This plant is the sole provider of power to the Mactan Export Processing Zone I. East Asia Utilities is the parent firm of CPPC.-GMANews.TV