Manila's Aboitiz Power seeks $315 mln loan for plant

MANILA: Philippine power producer Aboitiz Power Corp (AP) will seek $315 million in loans to fund the construction of a 246-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant in central Philippines, the company said on Thursday. Aboitiz Power, a unit of Philippine conglomerate Aboitiz Equity Ventures, is one of four groups involved in building the power plant in Toledo in the central province of Cebu. Other members of the consortium are Global Business Power Corp of the Metrobank group Taiwan's Formosa Heavy Industries, and the Vivant Corp.

"The consortium members are incorporating a project company which will undertake the proposed power plant. AP will have a 26.4 percent effective interest in the project company," Aboitiz Power said in a statement to the stock exchange. It was not clear when the company wanted to raise the financing or when the plant would be built. Aboitiz Power said the facility's total project cost was $450 million.

The facility will increase the capacity of the existing 300 MW Toledo power station. Toledo, Cebu is the site of a copper mine once considered to be the world's third largest copper producer and owned by Atlas Consolidated Mining Corp.