(Nov 10): Macquarie Group Ltd’s asset management arm and Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte Ltd are exploring options for their stake in Energy Development Corp (EDC), including a possible sale, people familiar with the matter said.

Macquarie Asset Management and GIC, which jointly hold about a third of the Philippine geothermal energy company, have brought in Goldman Sachs Group Inc to help with the review, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.

Other infrastructure-focused funds and industry players have shown early interest in the stake, which could be valued at about US$2 billion (RM8.11 billion), the people said. Considerations are preliminary and may not lead to a deal, they added.

Representatives of EDC, GIC, Goldman Sachs and Macquarie declined to comment.

A Macquarie fund and an affiliate of GIC bought the EDC stake for about US$1.3 billion in 2017. In July this year, Indonesia’s PT Barito Renewables Energy made an unsolicited, non-binding offer to buy EDC for about US$5 billion — a big deal for Asia’s clean energy sector. EDC backer First Gen Corp confirmed that it had received the offer, but hadn’t engaged in discussions.

Philippines-based First Gen, controlled by the prominent Lopez family, has assets in areas such as geothermal, hydropower, wind, solar and natural gas. KKR & Co sold its US$410 million stake and exited First Gen in September after its bid to take the company private at 35 pesos (US$0.55 or RM2.26) a share was rejected.

First Gen’s shares were little changed on Tuesday morning at 19.50 pesos, having hit a high of 31.85 pesos in mid-August around KKR’s offer. 

Uploaded by Tham Yek Lee