ACEN on lookout for offshore wind partners

AYALA-LED ACEN Corp. is actively looking for potential partners for its offshore wind initiatives, a top executive said.

In a statement, company CEO Eric Francia said offshore wind generation was not ACEN's strong point, adding that they are still studying this sector and the current business environment.

"On offshore wind, we are exploring the space, but it's too early to tell [for] now. But at the right time, we do have some offshore wind projects [in the pipeline] and some service contracts for this. But for a lot of these projects, we can see that that's probably going to take more than five years before we can be comfortable getting to financial investment decisions," Francia said.

"Moreover, we will also need partners for those [projects] because we don't have the expertise [yet]. So, if and when we do offshore wind projects, we definitely will have to do [them] with a strategic or technical partner. Currently, we have at least three, I think, service contracts," he added.

Based on Department of Energy data, the listed energy arm of the Ayala Group has secured three offshore wind energy service contracts from the government agency, namely the Calatagan, Batangas project; another project in Manila Bay; and the Cagayan West offshore wind project.

According to Francia, ACEN is exploring "potential partnerships as our route to [the] market. We will not only depend on our own organic projects but we're also looking at whether we can partner in the offshore wind space to be able to participate earlier than we would otherwise would have."

"But again, on the partnership front, all I can say is we're active in exploring [for a] potential partner, but we cannot say anything further than that," he noted.

ACEN shares on Wednesday closed down 2 centavos, or 0.74 percent, at P2.67 apiece.