AC Energy raises nearly P5.4 billion in rights offer

AC ENERGY Corp. has raised around P5.37 billion from its stock rights offering that took place from Jan. 18 to 22, which the Ayala-led company said was fully subscribed and fully paid for.

During the five-day offer period, the company said it had sold a total of 2,267,580,434 common shares at an offer price of P2.37 per share to eligible stockholders of record as of Jan. 13, 2021.

Broken down, the first round allocation of the offering sold around 2.09 billion shares, while the second round saw over 172.68 million shares.

AC Energy previously said that the net proceeds of the offering will be used by the company “to partially fund the development of its various power projects, inorganic growth opportunities as they arise, and its other general corporate requirements.”

Three weeks ago, AC Energy moved the rights offer period for its stocks to an earlier date since its existing regulatory approval needed to be completed by January 2021. The previous opening date of its latest SRO was scheduled on the first work week of February.

The company previously said that its latest rights offering was exempted from the registration requirement of the securities code. Because of this, the offer shares are not registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In another disclosure to the local bourse, the company’s parent firm Ayala Corp. confirmed that AC Energy’s top official Eric T. Francia was appointed to lead Ayala Corp.’s investments committee, which is in charge of reviewing and making recommendations on the firm’s portfolio strategy.

On Thursday, AC Energy’s publicly listed firm unit ACE Enexor announced in a separate regulatory filing that it had withdrawn from the consortium covering Service Contract No. 6, a petroleum block in northwest Palawan. At present, ACE Enexor holds 7.78% of participating interest in SC 6 Block A.

On Thursday, shares in AC Energy shed 9.2% to close at P6.02 apiece, while shares in its parent firm Ayala Corp. improved 3.29% to end at P800 apiece. ACE Enexor shares inched up 5.22% to finish at P13.30 apiece. — Angelica Y. Yang