November 13, 2025 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — Aboitiz Power Corp. expects to unlock immediate value from its multibillion-peso takeover of the 797-megawatt Caliraya-Botocan-Kalayaan (CBK) hydro complex in Laguna.
AboitizPower chief financial officer Sandro Aboitiz said the CBK acquisition is currently under evaluation by the Philippine Competition Commission, with financial close targeted for the end of this month or early December.
“The expectation is that when the asset gets turned over to us, it would be contributing earnings to us immediately,” Aboitiz said at a recent company briefing.
CBK, which consists of hydroelectric power plants in Lumban, Majayjay and Kalayaan in Laguna, is scheduled for turnover by late February 2026.
State-run Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. awarded the asset to the Aboitiz-led Thunder Consortium in July after topping the long-delayed auction with a P36.3-billion offer.
The group outbid the P19.62-billion offer by its rival FGKW Consortium of Lopez-led First Gen Prime Energy Corp. and Korea Water Resources Corp.
AboitizPower holds a commanding 64 percent stake in the Thunder Consortium, which also includes Japan’s Sumitomo Corp. and Electric Power Development Co.
Currently, CBK operates under a 25-year build-rehabilitate-operate-transfer contract and power purchase agreement between CBK Power Co. Ltd. and the National Power Corp., set to expire in February 2026.
The auction for the CBK sale was reopened earlier this year following a previous failed attempt to privatize the asset.
Following the CBK acquisition, Aboitiz said the Philippines’ largest power producer is “eager” to deepen its partnership with Sumitomo, a leading Japanese diversified conglomerate.
And this translated into what could be AboitizPower’s first major overseas investment, a planned acquisition of a 25-percent stake in a coal-fired facility in Vietnam owned by Sumitomo for $220 million.
“For this particular investment, apart from this plant being a great asset, with great partners and a great contract, I think from an international perspective, Vietnam is one of the markets that we have fairly high long-term conviction on,” Aboitiz said.
