November 14, 2025 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — Ayala-led ACEN Corp. plans to jack up its capital expenditures (capex) to over P80 billion next year to fund its large-scale projects both in the Philippines and overseas.
“Our best estimate at the moment is that next year will be north of P70 billion and could even be over P80 billion depending on the timing of projects,” ACEN CFO and chief strategy officer Jonathan Back said at a Philippine Stock Exchange event yesterday.
With such a sizable target, Back noted that the majority of the capex would be funded through project financing.
“In all of our large projects, we now seek to implement project finance at the asset level which is anywhere from 65 percent to even 80 percent of the capital cost of the project,” he said.
The Ayala Group’s listed energy platform also intends to tap a diverse mix of funding sources to drive its high-capex projects forward.
If ACEN reaches the upper end of its 2026 capex target, it would surpass both this year’s initial budget and actual spending.
In a previous interview, ACEN president and CEO Eric Francia projected that the company would spend roughly P70 billion this year.
However, according to Back, ACEN is now estimated to end the year with “a little over P50 billion” in capex.
Currently, the company has around seven gigawatts of attributable renewable energy capacity spanning operational, under-construction and committed projects.