ACEN Corp. said Thursday subsidiary ACEN Renewables International completed its acquisition of UPC Renewables Asia Pacific Holdings Pte Ltd.’s and Anton Rohner’s investments in ACEN Australia for $173 million.
Australia is ACEN’s biggest market outside the Philippines with over 1,000 megawatts of renewable energy projects under construction.
ACEN said in a disclosure to the stock exchange ACRI and UPCAPH signed an instrument for the transfer to ACRI of UPCAPH’s remaining 4,766 ordinary shares in UPC-AC Energy Australia (HK) Ltd. This completes the second and final tranche of ACRI’s acquisition of ACEN Australia.
ACRI paid $162,671,091 for the 11,916 ordinary shares and $10,418,552 for the 1,000,054 ordinary class B shares in UPC-AC Energy Australia (HK).
ACEN said the purchase price of $173 million is the result of negotiation between the parties, taking into account the valuation of UPC-AC Renewables Australia when the company’s parent company, AC Energy and Infrastructure Corp. infused its international assets into ACEN in exchange for additional ACEN common shares earlier this year.
The acquisition transforms the UPC\AC Renewables Australia joint venture into ACEN Australia, the company’s first wholly-owned development and operating platform outside the Philippines.
“The acquisition of the remaining stake of the company’s joint venture partners in ACEN Australia allows the company to have full ownership and control of the joint venture company, which is currently constructing the 521-MW New England solar farm and the 520-MW Stubbo solar farm in Australia, and has a development pipeline spanning New South Wales, Tasmania, Victoria and South Australia,” ACEN said.
ACEN said the company would also gain a high-quality team who have a proven track record of delivering value to the business by being able to find opportunities and new projects.
The ACEN board approved ACRI’s acquisition of the effective ownership interest of its joint venture partner UPCAPH and Rohner in ACEN Australia, their joint venture holding company for energy and power projects and investments in Australia, for up to $243.3 million, subject to adjustments in October 2021.
ACRI, UPCAPH and Rohner signed a share purchase agreement on March 11, 2022.
The first tranche of the acquisition was completed on March 21, 2022, with the signing between ACRI, UPCAPH and Rohner of separate Instruments of transfer for the transfer to ACRI of UPCAPH’s 7,150 ordinary shares in UPC-AC Energy Australia (HK) and Rohner’s 1,000,054 ordinary class B shares in UPC Australia (HK).
The company executed a subscription agreement with each of UPCAPH and Rohner. UPCAPH subscribed to 869,119,204 ACEN common shares, while Rohner subscribed to 61,630,796 ACEN common shares at P7.871 apiece.
ACEN , the listed energy platform of the Ayala Group, aspires to be the largest listed renewables platform in Southeast Asia, with a goal of reaching 20 gigawatts of capacity by 2030.
The company owns about 4,000 MW of attributable capacity from its facilities in the Philippines, Vietnam Indonesia, India and Australia, with a renewable share of 98 percent.