AYALA ENERGY DIVESTS FROM BIOMASS-FIRED POWER PLANTS

Negros Island Biomass Holdings Inc. ("NIBH"), a joint venture development holding company between AC Energy and the Zabaleta group, has signed binding agreements to divest its shareholdings in three biomass-fired power plants in the Visayas.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, AC Energy said the divestment is subject to certain conditions precedent where NIBH will sell its equity stake to its partner, the Singapore-based ThomasLloyd CTI Asia Holdings Pte Ltd ("ThomasLloyd"), which indirectly already owns over 90% of the economics of the equity ownership of the biomass-fired power plants. The terms of the sale were not disclosed. The divestment of its indirect minority interest allows AC Energy to focus on the expansion of its core solar and wind businesses as it moves towards its goals of reaching 5GW of renewable capacity by 2025 and becoming the largest listed renewable energy platform in Southeast Asia.

The Zabaleta group continues to be invested in the solar and wind sectors, and operates Bronzeoak Clean Energy in the bioenergy sector. Bronzeoak Clean Energy continues to provide management services to ThomasLloyd for the three plants and continues as a bioenergy development and management company. The acquisition by ThomasLloyd allows it to fully consolidate and further expand the biopower business, moving beyond just the power business and into complementary and ancillary businesses. ThomasLloyd now has full control of the three plants, namely, the 20MW San Carlos BioPower, the 25MW North Negros BioPower, and the 25MW South Negros BioPower.

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