EDC to borrow P1 to P2 billion to refinance debts

EDC to borrow P1 to P2 billion to refinance debts

The Energy Development Corp. (EDC) is looking to borrow around P1 billion to P2 billion in the coming weeks as additional fund to refinance its existing debts.

EDC vice president for corporate finance Erwin Avante said the company already has P8.5 billion of loans secured and wants to close the figure at P10 billion.

“We signed a total of P8.5 billion of borrowings. This is mainly this to refinance debts. In the next few weeks, we’ll probably sign up additional P1-2 billion more, again, to refinance debts,” Avante said.

EDC previously secured a 15-year amortizing loan of up to P3.5 billion with the Union Bank of the Philippines, and a 15-year and a 10-year fixed rate amortizing loan of up to P5 billion with Security Bank Corp. to be used to pre-fund maturing debt next year.

“We have another maturity next June. We’ll try if we can pre-fund it this year. That’s $72 million, around P3.5 billion,” Avante said.

EDC president and COO Richard Tantoco said the debt refinancing will allow them to optimize their expenses moving forward.

“In general, our capex (capital expenditures) and opex (operating expenditures) can be supported by internally generated funds. As the quarters and months pass by, we just want to reduce debt and that will reduce your spending as well,” he said.