May 11, 2015
Visayan Daily Star by Carla P. Gomez | http://goo.gl/TgOwz3
The owners of San Carlos Bioenergy Inc. in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental, have sold 93.68 percent of the firm to Roxas Pacific Bioenergy Corp., a subsidiary of sugar group Roxas Holdings Inc., in a move towards shifting into other ventures.
“We sold because we are investing heavily in solar power and other renewable energy ventures since we are basically developers,” Jose Maria T. Zabaleta, former SCBI chairman, told the DAILY STAR yesterday.
Meanwhile, SCBI sold RPBC a plant in operation with its own port so the deal made sense for them, he said.
“The plant is still inside our PEZA Industrial Estate where we are having other locators as well,” Zabaleta also said.
Zabaleta said their renewable energy company is Bronzeoak Philippines Inc. and their big utility scale solar farms are called SACASOL Inc.
SCBI is the country's second largest ethanol company and its purchase makes RPBC the largest ethanol producer in the country.
RPBC raised its ownership in SCBI to 93.68 percent with the purchase of the majority 64.02 percent ownership from Menarco Clean Energy Inc. of the Jimenez Group for P1.0083 billion late last month.
It bought the 26.7-percent share of the Zabaleta Group for P420 million on March 18, followed by the acquisition of a 2.96-percent share from the Valmayor Group for P46.721 million on April 16.
The National Development Corp. remains a minority shareholder in SCBI with a 6.32-percent shareholding.
RHI vice chairman Manuel Pangilinan said their take over will lead to higher production efficiency.
“We hope to achieve greater economies of scale in our operations that will benefit the industry,” he said.*CPG