METRO Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) on Tuesday said it has secured a 10-year term loan of P5 billion from Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank).
In its disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the MPIC said the loan proceeds will be used to finance its investment in various projects and for other general corporate purposes.
“The loan will bear a fixed interest rate for the entire term of the loan,” it said.
MPIC also signed on Tuesday a P1-billion deal with Dole Philippines Inc. to design, construct and operate biogas facilities specifically for the pineapple canner.
MPIC said its units Metpower Venture Partners Holdings Inc., through Surallah Biogas Ventures Corp., signed the deal on its behalf.
The biogas facilities, located within the premises of Dole, aim to complement their existing operation by processing organic fruit waste from its Surallah and Polomolok facilities in South Cotabato, Mindanao, and harnessing renewable energy in the form of biogas.
Suralla will produce about 50,000 megawatt-hour of clean energy annually to be used by Dole for power generation and fossil fuel substitute.
“Both MPIC and Dole believe that this long-term project is an innovative, environment-friendly, and sustainable waste management solution consistent with, and further elevates the business tradition of Dole,” it said.
It claimed that the project will reduce its carbon emission by approximately 100,000 tons per year.
This is MPIC’s first foray in bio-energy, which it said would be replicated to other parts in the country.
MPIC’s core net income rose 8 percent during the nine months of the year to P12.2 billion, from last year’s P11.3 billion, but it warned it will have a flat growth during the last quarter of the year.
David J. Nicol, the company’s chief finance officer, said MPIC’s core income may end the year at P15 billion, or slightly higher than last year’s P14.1 billion.
“We think that fourth quarter will be flat on a year ago,” Nicol said earlier.
Jose Ma. K. Lim, the company’s president and CEO, said increasing funding costs are likely to be a drag on its fourth-quarter core income, which would continue through next year.
He said the company’s volume growth for most of its businesses in the third quarter slowed due to a combination of rising inflation and unusually damp and cool weather, “to which our residential customers in the power sector are especially sensitive.”