AES To Sell 51% Stake In Businesses In Philippines Unit For $1.05 Bln

(RTTNews) - AES Corp. (AES), a power company, announced Monday that it has entered into an agreement to sell its entire 51% equity interest in Masin-AES Pte. Ltd. to SMC Global Power Holdings Corp. for $1.05 billion.

SMC Global Power is also purchasing the remaining 49% equity interest in the same assets, held by Electricity Generating Public Company Limited, a Thailand-based Independent Power Producer, for $850 million. The transaction has a total enterprise value of approximately $2.4 billion.

Masin-AES is a subsidiary of AES that owns AES' business interests in the Philippines.

The sale includes AES' 51% equity interest in the 630 MW Masinloc coal-fired power plant in operation, the 335 MW Masinloc 2 coal-fired power plant under construction and the 10 MW Masinloc energy storage project in operation.

The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2018, subject to regulatory approval by the Philippine Competition Commission.

In 2008, AES purchased a 92% interest in Masinloc, with the International Finance Corporation as a minority partner, for total enterprise value of $1.1 billion. The acquisition was funded with equity contributed by AES and IFC and $635 million of non-recourse debt. In 2014, AES sold 41% of Masinloc to EGCO Group for $453 million.

The company said it will use the proceeds from the sale to pay down Parent debt, which will allow it to achieve investment grade metrics one year early, in 2019.