Ayala-led ACEN is set to swap some of its assets for shares in exploration unit ACE Enexor, Inc. in a deed of assignment that the two entities signed before the end of 2021, both firms said in separate disclosures to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) on New Year’s Eve.
Enexor will be issuing 339 million shares to ACEN at Php10 apiece in exchange for the latter’s five assets, namely: Palawan55 Exploration & Production Corporation, Bulacan Power Generation Corporation (BPGC), CIP II Power Corporation, Ingrid3 Power Corporation, and One Subic Power Generation Corporation (OSPGC).
Palawan55 holds the rights to the Service Contract 55 exploration block in the West Philippine Sea. BPGC owns a 52-megawatt (MW) diesel power plant in Norzagaray, Bulacan. CIP II operates a 21MW diesel facility in Bacnotan, La Union, while OSPGC leases a 116MW diesel facility in the Subic Bay Freeport.
“[We would have dual-fuel], so that it will be future-ready when hydrogen becomes economic and competitive,” ACEN President and CEO Eric Francia had said in the maiden episode of Power Podcast in November 2021.
The swap with Enexor is part of ACEN’s move towards having an all-renewables portfolio by 2025. Francia had also said that thermal assets are still needed for the energy transition.
Meanwhile, the swap prompted the PSE to suspend trading of Enexor shares on Monday as the exchange applied its Backdoor Listing Rule.
A transaction is considered a backdoor listing when a listed company is “acquired by, merged or combined with an unlisted company, and which acquisition, merger, or combination results in a substantial change in the business, membership of the board of directors, or voting structure of the listed company,” the PSE said.
The suspension is valid until Enexor complies with the rule which includes the submission of a comprehensive corporate disclosure.