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BANCO de
Oro Unibank has agreed to give sugar conglomerate Roxas
Holdings Inc. a loan for P4.69 billion.
The
money is intended to boost sugar production and finance
the construction of an ethanol plant, the bank said in a
statement Thursday.
The
Roxas group earlier said it is strengthening its
sugar-milling and -refining subsidiaries Central
Azucarera Don Pedro Inc. and Central Azucarera de La
Carlota Inc. to raise its competitive advantage against
low-priced imported sugar entering the country by 2010.
The
conglomerate, whose shares are traded on the stock
exchange, intends to increase its production capacity by
52 percent. It hired Macquarie Securities Philippines to
give it sound financial advice.
The firm
earlier said it needed P6 billion to refinance debt and
fund capacity-building projects.
The firm
is bracing for lower sugar tariffs down to 5 percent,
from 35 percent, starting 2010 in line with the tariff
reduction scheme of the Asean Free Trade Agreement
signed in 1992.
The firm
is also investing more than P1 billion for the
construction of an ethanol plant in Negros. The plant is
expected to produce100,000 litters a day by 2009.
Production is expected to reach 30 million liters every
year for the next ten years.
The
Biofuels Act of 2006 requires liquid fuels for engines
to have 5 percent local content by 2008. The local
biofuel mix is mandated to reach 10 percent in the
coming years.
Roxas
Holdings was formed from a merger of then-industry
leaders Central Azucarera Don Pedro and Central
Azucarera de La Carlota.
The Don
Pedro owned an integrated milling and refinery complex
in Nasugbu, Batangas, south of
Manila, which was the country’s second-largest refinery. It is also
a major partner in a joint venture that acquired
Hawaiian Philippines Co., a sugar miller in the central
Philippine
province
of Negros Occidental. |
