Wednesday, October 01, 2008 Investor groups attend Psalm bidding
AT LEAST 15 investor groups expressed interest in the three pre-bid conference conducted by the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (Psalm) Corp. for the generation assets to be auctioned off before the year ends.
For the second round of bidding for the 0.8-megawatt (MW) Amlan power facility, Psalm said three investors group have attended the pre-bid conference held Tuesday at its Makati office.
Seven groups meanwhile have expressed interest in the decommissioned 108-MW Aplaya and 22.3-MW General Santos diesel power plant conducted last Friday.
The pre-bid conference for the resale of the generating 146.5-MW Panay and 22-MW Bohol diesel power complex was held Thursday. It was attended by all five investor groups who were briefed on the details of the Bidding Procedures and who clarified issues regarding Psalm's sale process.
"The 15 investor groups (three for Amlan, seven for Aplaya-General Santos, and five for Panay-Bohol) all satisfied the preliminary requirements of Psalm as stipulated in the Invitation to Bid published in the major newspapers last 03-05 September 2008," Psalm said in a statement.
The decommissioned Aplaya-General Santos and the generating Panay-Bohol and Amlan power facilities are the last assets in Psalm's auction list this year.
Psalm will bid out the Panay-Bohol power plant package on November 12 and the Aplaya-General Santos power complex on November 14. The bid date for the Amlan hydropower facility is set on December 10.
Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes said privatization conducted by Psalm reached 69 percent or one percent short of the 70 percent privatization target by the government to pave the way for the implementation of the open access and retail competition that hopes to provide affordable electricity rates to all Filipinos.
Apart from the three power facilities, Psalm similarly scheduled the bidding for the contracts of the independent power producers (IPPs) that was estimated to bring the government of about US$13 billion in revenue.
Proceeds from the privatization are used to settle the outstanding financial obligation of Napocor which went down from US$7 billion to US$5.8 billion as of this month following the pre-payment of about Y19.76 billion or US$184 million two weeks ago.
The loans were extended by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) to Napocor for the 600-megawatt Masinloc coal-fired power plant in Zambales, which was successfully privatized in 2007. (MSN/Sunnex)
