ACEN and Yanara have signed a financing agreement with Philippine bank RCBC to build the Sual solar plant in Pangasinan province, on a site historically associated with coal power.

ACEN, the listed energy platform of the Philippine Ayala group, and Yanara, a renewable developer active across Asia-Pacific and spun off from the regional arm of US-based BrightNight, announced on Friday, August 28, 2026, the signing of a financing agreement with Philippine bank RCBC to build the Sual solar plant in Pangasinan province. The project had been awarded to the two groups during the fourth round of the national renewable energy auction program (Green Energy Auction Program, GEA-4), run by the Philippine Department of Energy, in September 2025. This competitive mechanism allows private developers to sign a long-term power purchase agreement with the state, guaranteeing the offtake of production onto the national grid under pre-set terms.

A symbolic site in a former coal-power region
The Sual site is presented by both companies as symbolic: this area of Pangasinan province has historically been associated with coal-fired power generation, where a solar plant is now being built instead. The partnership between ACEN and Yanara takes the form of a joint structure, Yanara Philippines Corp., which holds the project company responsible for building and operating the facility. This type of bank financing dedicated to solar assets fits into a pattern observed across several markets, illustrated by the €150 million ($174 million) financing secured by Tenergie boucle un financement de 150 M€ pour 350 projets solaires for its own installations in France, or the $179 million raised by ACME Solar obtient 179 millions $ pour un projet solaire au Rajasthan for a comparable project in India.

Project debt with no recourse to parent balance sheets
The announced financing takes the form of project debt, backed solely by the assets and future revenues of the project company, with no automatic recourse to the parent companies' balance sheets. ACEN states it intends to extend this type of structure to its major projects, in order to limit its need to raise equity capital. RCBC is involved in the transaction through several of its subsidiaries: RCBC Trust Corporation acts as facility agent and security trustee, while RCBC Capital Corporation serves as lead mandated arranger. Mr. Patrice Clausse, Group Chief Investment Officer at ACEN, and Mr. Jerome Ortiz, Chief Executive Officer of Yanara, fronted the announcement of the agreement.

A multi-layered ownership chain
On the ownership side, the project company is presented by both groups as a subsidiary of the ACEN-Yanara joint venture in the Philippines, which is itself jointly held by the two developers. This detail introduces an intermediate layer in the ownership chain, between the parent companies and the entity carrying the project. Once operational, the plant is expected to supply renewable electricity to the Philippine national grid, under the power purchase agreement concluded following the GEA-4 auction. Neither the plant's generating capacity nor the amount of the financing was disclosed by the two companies in their August 28, 2026 statement.