Philippine Bioenergy firms strike acquisition deals

PHILIPPINES – Roxas Pacific Bioenergy Corp, a subsidiary of Roxas Holdings Inc, has acquired a 26.7%- stake in San Carlos Bioenergy Inc for  Php420.525 million.

Roxas Holdings disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange it signed recently an agreement with Bronzeoak Philippines Inc to acquire  the latter’s 26.70% shareholdings in SCBI.

San Carlos is a bioethanol company located in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental.

It is a Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA)-registered company incorporated in May 2005 to construct, own and operate an integrated fuel bioethanol distillery and power co-generation facility, thus making it the first fuel bioethanol and co-generation facility in the Philippines and Southeast Asia. San Carlos utilises sugarcane to supply the country’s fuel and energy demands, in compliance with the mandates of the Biofuels Act of 2006 and the Renewable Energy Act of 2008.

The laws are aimed at lessening the country’s dependence on imported traditional fuel, generate jobs on the countryside and improve air quality.

Bronzeoak Philippines is San Carlos’s developer, which provided unique and valuable expertise in biomass power plant engineering, while its principal sponsor, Zabaleta and Co, renders sugar-based agricultural experience.

Equity capital was raised both domestically through San Julio Realty In., Valmayor Ventures Inc, National Development Co. and the Majent Group and through FE Clean Energy of New York.

SCBI processes a maximum of 1,500 tonnes of sugarcane to produce 125,000 litters of bioethanol and generate a rated capacity of around 7.4MW where at least 2.4 MWh is to be supplied to the power grid daily.

The production of both alternative and renewable energy is governed by separate contracts, apart from those executed with other government agencies under the Executive Branch.