The state-run energy firm is likewise pushing ahead plans to undertake roadshows to corner foreign buyers of its shares.

The initial approvals were already given by the PNOC-EDC management and board; and next steps will involve those with its PNOC parent firm’s Board; and eventually by the Privatization Council.

According to PNOC-EDC vice president for external relations Agnes de Jesus, the stock listing will be offered both via the PSE and to foreign investors.

The model they are trying to follow was the one adopted by energy companies that listed this year, such as that of First Gen Corporation.

The company has not made any number crunching yet on how much proceeds would they be able to raise from the privatization.

Meanwhile, PNOC President Eduardo V. Mañalac noted that the proceeds from privatization will be used partly to settle some bullet repayments of loans acquired by the company for its contractual obligations.

Officials of the energy development affiliate emphasized though that the divestment plan will be separate from that of the geothermal assets to be handled by the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM).

PNOC-EDC has just agreed to provide steam sales agreement that shall be lumped into the package of power plants it has been supplying with steam.

Such mode of privatization was carried out to comply with the provisions of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act, in which Section 47 (g) states that "the steamfield assets and generating plants shall not be sold separately. They shall be combined and each geothermal complex shall be sold as one package through public bidding."

The assets that are partly in PNOC-EDC’s sleeves are the 720-megawatt Tongonan 1-3 plants; 192-MW Palinpinon and 108-MW Mt. Apo geothermal complexes.

This divestment plan has already secured the gosignal of the joint Congressional Power Commission (JCPC) which oversees the privatization of the generation assets of the National Power Corporation.

The geothermal facilities are expected to lure throng of investors during bidding time given the preferential bias given by government to indigenous energy resources.

Aside from proposed maximized dispatch, the privatization of the geothermal assets is also seen imperative at this point because geothermal power is among those granted a zero-rated privilege under the newly-implemented Expanded Value-Added Tax Law.