The government-backed $1 billion privatisation of the geothermal arm of Philippine National Oil Co (PNOC) has reportedly been postponed until next year.
The sale of PNOC Energy Development Corp via a combined private placement and initial public offering was supposed to take place towards the end of this year, when some 9 billion of its 15 billion shares were set for divestment. Proceeds from the sale were to have been used to invest in new geothermal resources, including five geothermal plants with installed capacity of more than 400 MW from state-firm National Power Corp (Napocor).
The reasons behind delay are unclear, with government sources cited as saying that the appropriate structure for the privatisation had not yet been devised.