FOUR energy companies are eyeing to list their shares at the Philippine Stock Exchange in the near term, former energy chief Vincent S. Perez said in an interview.

At the sidelines of the Power Industry Forum organized by listed online broker CitisecOnline, Perez said the companies that are interested to go public are Northwind Power Development Co., bioethanol  producer San Carlos Bioenergy, PNOC-Alternative Fuels Corp. and Enerfuse Holdings.

. “These are companies engage in renewable energy,” said Perez who is also chairman of energy advisory firm Merritt Partners. “The market for such energy is booming and they would need capital to support their future investments in the sector.”

He did not specify a timetable for the planned IPOs, noting that everything is still quite preliminary.

Renewable energy such as geothermal, wind, hydro and biomass accounted for nearly half the country’s total energy requirements in 2005.

Under the department’s renewable energy policy framework is a plan to double renewable energy-based capacity percent by 2013.

At least 14 companies are expected to ride on the prevailing bullishness in the equities market by going public from this year to 2010, according to Astro del Castillo, director of the Association of Securities Analysts of the Philippines.

Del Castillo said some of these companies eyeing to go public are Anchor Land Holdings Inc. and  Pacific Online Systems Corp.

SM Investments Corp. (SMIC), the holding company controlled by the country’s richest man Henry Sy, is planning to spend P95 billion over the next five years to finance the projects of its core subsidiaries.

Philippine stock index climbs   

THE Philippines stock index rose, extending this month’s gain on optimism exports will rise after imports growth accelerated. International Container Terminal Services Inc. gained.

FOUR energy companies are eyeing to list their shares at the Philippine Stock Exchange in the near term, former energy chief Vincent S. Perez said in an interview.

SUBSCRIBERS to SMART Communications Inc. mobile-phone service  may soon be able to pick their own contact numbers.

GLOBE Telecom urged the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to formulate a cost manual that will determine access charge rates instead of pushing for a new interconnection template that clearly bypasses negotiations between two interconnecting parties.

 Washington Z. Sycip, now 85 years old, only left SGV and Co., which he co-founded in 1946 but did not retire. Since 1997, he has been a director MacroAsia Corp., which belongs to the Lucio Tan group of companies, and chairman of Lufthansa Technik Philippines Inc.