Ayala oil/gas firm to pursue follow-on offering (Sabong News)

ACE Enexor Inc., the oil and gas investment platform of the Ayala group, will be undertaking a follow-on offering (FOO) for 74,000,000 shares to be priced at P10 to P11.84 per share. The company has secured the go-signal of its board this week on “the appointment of the transaction advisors including the joint bookrunners and lead underwriters, counsels and auditors for the review of financial statements, and legal counsels for the preparation of various documents” relative to the follow-on stock offering. The management of ACE Enexor was also given the authority to submit the application for the FOO to the relevant government agencies, including the filing of other documents that shall be necessary for the FOO process. ACE Enexor Chairman John Eric T. Francia, as well as the other top executives of the company – President Rolando J. Paulino and Chief Finance Officer Maria Corazon G. Dizon, were likewise delegated by the company’s board “to jointly determine and finalize the terms and conditions of the FOO,” and that shall cover the size, price and schedule of the offering. The company is setting investment sights in both the upstream and downstream oil and gas sector – including the targeted petroleum exploration and drilling at Palawan basin that is eyed to be finally advancing around April next year. On the downstream side of the business, the Ayala firm is partnering with American company Gen X Energy L.P. for the development of 1,100-megawatt liquefied natural gas (LNG) power project in Batangas. The 50:50 joint venture deal that it has been cementing with Gen X Energy will require ACE Enexor to subscribe to a total of “150,002 shares in BCE (Batangas Clean Energy Inc), for a total subscription price of P150,219,040.” BCE is the special purpose vehicle company for the LNG project, wherein the Ayala company and Gen X Energy, will own 50-percent interest each – subject to regulatory approvals as well as warranted execution of definitive documentations. The blueprinted LNG import terminal that will underpin the gas-fed power facility will have a capacity of 3.0 million tonnes per annum (mtpa), according to project design submitted to the Department of Energy. The LNG venture of BCE is being lined up for completion in 2025, and it will be among the energy infrastructure developments that will replace the depleting Malampaya field, and of which operations may also cease at the lapse of its service contract in 2024.