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Philippine’s First Gen Corp. to renegotiate EDC acquisition loan

Alexander Richter 14 May 2009

First Gen Corp. the company that bought majority stake in the Energy Development Corp. (EDC) in the company's privatization in 2007, aims now to renegotiate P13.8 billion in debts due at the end of the month.

Reported from Manila in the Philippines, First Gen Corp. the company that bought majority stake in the Energy Development Corp. (EDC) in the company’s privatization in 2007, aims now to “renegotiate P13.8 billion in debts due at the end of the month, seeking more elbow room following its acquisition of a 60% percent stake in Energy Development Corp. (EDC) using money from loans.

“What we are doing is that we are renegotiating it with [Banco de Oro Universal Bank, Inc.] on an extended maturity. We hope to get a five-year facility and basically buy ourselves time, so that we can enter into the next phase [and bring in a new] investor,” Francis Giles B. Puno, First Gen chief financial officer, said.

The P13.8-billion due debt this year is the last tranche of the short-term staple financing loan from Banco de Oro, Development Bank of the Philippines, and Land Bank of the Philippines, which First Gen took out late last year to partly cover its acquisition of geothermal producer EDC.

Source: Business World Online