A memorandum of agreement (MOA) was signed on 31 March with Pacific Hydro Pty Ltd of Australia, which owns 50% of the plant. AboitizPower owns the other 50%.
AboitizPower will assume full ownership of LHC upon completion of the transaction and fulfillment of certain conditions in the MOA. The acquisition will allow AboitizPower to capitalize on the operating synergies gained by combining Bakun Hydro with the 10 other small to medium hydro power plants it already owns and operates in Northern Luzon, all with an aggregate capacity of 34MW. AboitizPower also owns 50% of the 360MW Magat hydro plant in Isabela and the 175MW Ambuklao-Binga complex in Benguet.
“Obtaining full ownership of the Bakun Hydro plant is consistent with our strategy of increasing the mix of viable renewable energy in AboitizPower’s generation portfolio. We think we will be able to obtain significant synergies with the other hydros we operate in Benguet,” said AboitizPower President & CEO Erramon I. Aboitiz.
AboitizPower subsidiary Hedcor and Pacific Hydro developed the Bakun Hydro plant starting in 1996 and it subsequently entered into commercial production in 2001 under a 25-year PPA agreement with the National Power Corporation (NPC). It was the first hydro build-operate-transfer project of NPC. Prior to acquiring Magat Hydro, Bakun was AboitizPower’s largest hydro plant in terms of capacity.
