Maniolas

MANILA, Philippines – The country’s oldest conglomerate Ayala Corp. (AC) took advantage of liquidity in the equity market to raise P3.3 billion in fresh capital for its power and infrastructure projects. In a regulatory filing, AC said it completed the sale of 5.18 million common shares held in its treasury. “This raised cash proceeds of approximately P3.3 billion, which AC intends to use to fund existing and potential sizable projects in the infrastructure and power sectors,” AC said. “This new funding will further strengthen our balance sheet to build up our portfolio in these two sectors,” said AC president and chief operating officer Fernando Zobel de Ayala. At P647 per share, AC’s shares were sold at a three percent discount compared with the previous closing price of P667. The conglomerate earlier announced that is looking to invest up to $1 billion over the next five years for the capital intensive but high-yielding power and infrastructure sectors. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 “We hope to be able to contribute in some measure to the development of these sectors and at the same time create future sources of earnings and value for the group,” Zobel said. In the last two years, AC has committed more than $300 million of equity on power projects with roughly 900 megawatts (MW) of gross generating capacity. “It is looking to increase its equity commitment to $500 million to $600 million in the next 12 to 18 months,” AC said. Given its bullishness Read More …