Singapore firm offers to acquire P7.3-b stake in First Gen

Valorous Asia Holdings Pte. Ltd. of Singapore offered to acquire up to 9 percent of outstanding common shares of First Gen Corp. for P7.286 billion.

Valorous is making the tender offer to acquire by way of secondary sale from existing shareholders a minimum of 215,874,870 issued and outstanding common shares representing 6 percent and up to 323,812,305 issued and outstanding common shares representing a maximum of 9 percent of the total issued and outstanding common shares of the company at a price of P22.50 per share.

Valorous Asia Holdings is a wholly-owned subsidiary of KKR, a leading global investment firm that manages multiple alternative asset classes including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate, and credit with strategic partners that manage hedge funds.

“We greatly admire First Gen as a preeminent company in the Philippines and have great respect for the Lopez family for building this strong, well-established company. KKR has made this Tender Offer in good faith and would welcome the opportunity to be a minority investor available to positively engage with First Gen’s management team and the Lopez family as helpful in the future,” said David Luboff, partner and head of Asia Pacific Infrastructure at KKR.

It said the combination of industry knowledge, investment experience and operational expertise provides KKR with an edge in identifying and creating value in investment opportunities.

KKR has been an active investor in Southeast Asia across asset classes. In the Philippines, KKR has invested in Metro Pacific Hospitals, the country’s largest private hospitals operate and healthcare network, and in Voyager Innovations, a leading technology company.

First Gen is a subsidiary of First Philippine Holdings Corp., one of the most established conglomerates in the Philippines, and has over 20 years of experience in power development. Its clean energy portfolio includes natural gas, hydro, solar and geothermal power projects. It is also developing a liquefied natural terminal in Batangas.