Meralco’s MGreen completes P15.9B investment in SPNEC, MVP takes over as chairman

Meralco Powergen Corp.’s green energy arm MGen Renewable Energy Inc. (MGreen) has completed its P15.9-billion investment in Leandro Leviste-founded solar power firm SP New Energy Corp. (SPNEC).

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Wednesday, SPNEC said MGreen settled its P8.9-billion balance to complete its acquisition of SPNEC’s 15.7 billion common shares and 19.4 billion preferred shares.

The acquisition would result in MGreen becoming the controlling shareholder of SPNEC with a total voting interest of 50.5%.

With this, SPNEC said its Board of Directors approved the election of businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan as its chairman, president, and CEO; while Leviste will be the vice-chairman.

SPNEC is the developer of a planned 3.5 gigawatts (GW) solar and 4.5 GW-hour battery project centered in Nueva Ecija —envisioned to be the world's largest single contracted solar project. 

SPNEC is currently majority-owned by Leviste’s Solar Philippines Projects Holdings Inc. (SPH).

Under the investment deal, MGreen has agreed with SPH to use SPNEC as the primary vehicle to develop 3,500 GW of solar panels and 4,000 GWh of battery energy storage systems.

SPNEC said the estimated total investment for the company’s planned Nueva Ecija solar project has been pegged at “around Php 200 billion.”

“This will be one of the largest solar projects not just in Asia, but in the world,” said Pangilinan, adding that “it’s a big project… it has attracted a lot of interest from foreign investors because it’s big, transformative for the Philippines.”

“All of us shareholders are extremely fortunate for this opportunity. We are optimistic that becoming the newest member of the MVP Group of Companies will help SPNEC grow even beyond what we have planned, for the benefit of all shareholders and other stakeholders,” said Leviste.

SPNEC shares closed at P1.25 apiece on Wednesday, up 11.61% from its previous close of P1.12 per share on December 22, 2023.—AOL, GMA Integrated News