Business Highlights

Aseagas shuts down plant

January 16, 2018

Aboitiz Power Corp. announces that the biomass plant operated by its wholly-owned subsidiary, Aseagas Corp., will permanently cease operations.

Aseagas earlier suspended its commissioning due to unavailability of the supply of organic effluent wastewater from its supplier, Absolut Distillers, Inc.

The company also took the opportunity to assess the plant’s other issues, and after a full assessment, decided to make the plant shutdown permanent.

“Our top consideration now is to balance the interests of all our stakeholders, including that of Aseagas’ employees,” AboitizPower President and COO Antonio R. Moraza said.

AboitizPower earlier disclosed that Aseagas has prepaid  its outstanding loan with the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) in the amount of Php 2.368 billion.

Total value affected as a result of the closure is estimated to be at Php 3.7 billion, which represents Aseagas’ invested equity of Php 3.45 billion and the company's estimated remaining obligations of around Php 250 million.

Moraza said that AboitizPower is still on track to add some 500 MW of attributable capacity, mainly from baseload and hydro power plants in 2018, pushing the company closer to its 2020 target of 4,000-MW net attributable capacity.