* AI ("Artificial Intelligence") subtitles on Tagalog.com are generated using "Whisper" by OpenAI (the same company that created ChatGPT and DallE2). Results and accuracy may vary.
* The subtitles do include errors occasionally and should only be used as a tool to help with your listening practice.
* You can request this website to create a transcript for a video if one doesn't already exist by clicking the "Request AI Subtitles" button below a video. Transcribing usually takes 30-40% of the length of a video to complete if there are no other videos in
the queue. For example, a 21 minute video will take 7-8 minutes to transcribe.
* Running a super fast cloud GPU server to do these transcriptions does cost money. If you have the desire and financial ability, consider
becoming a patron
to support these video transcriptions, and the other tools and apps built by Tagalog.com
00:00.0
Now, global investment in the low-carbon energy transition surged 17% in 2023,
00:06.4
reaching $1.77 trillion, according to Bloomberg's Energy Transition Investment Trends 2024.
00:13.0
Now, this number is a new record level of annual investment
00:15.8
that demonstrates the resilience of the clean energy transition
00:18.5
in the year of geopolitical turbulence, high interest rates, and cost inflation.
00:23.4
What is the Philippine context here?
00:26.4
Joining us this morning is Guillaume Luchi, President and CEO of Prime Infrastructure.
00:31.9
I hope I said your name right, sir.
00:33.3
Very well, yes. Thank you. Good morning.
00:35.1
Good morning. So, of course, you're part of the Razon Group.
00:38.5
Of course, Mr. Razon is into ports, is into gaming, and this is his infrastructure sustainability arm.
00:44.3
I wonder, when you have conversations in the boardroom with Mr. Razon,
00:48.0
what's the marching order for you, for this company?
00:50.6
All right. Thank you for the question.
00:52.3
Well, look, we set up Prime Infra in 2017.
00:56.4
It's seven years old.
00:58.2
I had the good fortune of being employee number one of Prime Infra.
01:02.0
And I think the marching order is very simple.
01:04.0
We want to be an infrastructure player that addresses really critical needs in the market.
01:09.4
Critical needs mean essentially infrastructure that serves a fundamental element of society.
01:16.0
So, power, waste management, water.
01:18.6
And we want to do that in a, we use the term, socially relevant fashion.
01:22.7
What does that mean?
01:23.2
It's that we want to do this in a way that responds to the needs of the population.
01:26.4
That, of course, is an intrinsic part of the business model.
01:29.6
It ensures that we have resilience in the business model and long-term continuity.
01:34.2
So, those are the marching orders.
01:35.8
So, it's not just a nice-to-have arm.
01:38.6
It's a need-to-have.
01:39.8
You guys are a need-to-have.
01:40.8
You're sort of like the arm that's looking at the future to make sure we have a sustainable planet that can sustain the population.
01:48.0
The business is built around that entire concept, right?
01:50.8
And so, managing these three pillars, energy, water, and waste management,
01:55.1
addresses the aspect of sustainability as well as addressing, of course, the needs of the population.
01:59.6
So, we do know that you guys have a controlling stake in Manila Water.
02:04.0
And nearly half of the Malampay Gas Project.
02:07.0
You recently exited the Terra Solar.
02:11.0
And what sort of, how big of an investment is Prime Info making in this great big push for critical infrastructure?
02:19.8
Well, so we're making significant investments.
02:21.2
So, maybe I'll start with…
02:25.1
Well, I think 17 is really an average.
02:28.4
We're far above average.
02:30.2
So, if we look at the type of investments we're making, look, let's start with Manampaya.
02:34.9
Manampaya playing absolutely a critical role in ensuring avoiding volatility, stability of gas prices, energy security.
02:43.6
We have just contracted the drilling vessel that will come in next year and drill three new wells, two development wells, one exploratory well.
02:52.3
Pagong Pagasa will be the exploratory well.
02:54.2
We'll be spending over $750 to $800 million over the next couple of years to try to extend the life of Manampaya as far as we can, right?
03:02.9
A very critical asset, of course, for the nation.
03:05.7
On the energy side, we're investing heavily in energy storage.
03:10.4
Last week, actually, we were granted by the Bureau of Investment.
03:14.7
The Green Lane, correct.
03:15.7
And so, those are significant investments.
03:17.7
We're talking about 1,400 megawatts of storage, pump storage.
03:22.4
We'll be spending about $250 billion.
03:23.6
Over $150 billion pesos for that.
03:25.6
Over $140 billion pesos for another 600 megawatt pump storage.
03:30.1
So, these are significant investments we're making across the business.
03:33.1
Without touching into the water side, we invested over $25 billion pesos in our bulk water project that is completed.
03:40.1
Well, completed, the main dam is completed as of the end of March.
03:44.1
It'll be ready, fully completed by the first quarter next year.
03:47.1
And I will service the east zone of Metro Manila, supplying over 700 million liters per year.
03:51.6
And I will service the east zone of Metro Manila, supplying over 700 million liters per year.
03:52.6
And I will service the east zone of Metro Manila, supplying over 700 million liters per year.
03:53.6
And I will service the east zone of Metro Manila, supplying over 700 million liters per year.
03:55.6
A major investment across the three sectors.
03:57.6
And I haven't even touched on the waste management one.
03:59.6
Well get to the waste management.
04:01.6
It's pretty exciting.
04:03.6
I wonder though, it's been seven years of critical infrastructure for Primeinfra.
04:14.6
When do you expect these projects to start churning in profit contributing to…
04:15.6
Excellent question.
04:17.6
And so, the seven years are when the company was set up.
04:20.6
As you can imagine, these things are very long in the making.
04:23.6
long gestation period as you rightly pointed out so wawa which is our bulk water supply project
04:30.3
again the main dam was completed at the end of march we actually will be starting what we call
04:35.9
the controlled impounding filling up the reservoir in may we will be generating cash at the end of
04:41.9
2025 which is when our off-take agreement starts so we are actually finishing that project 6 to 12
04:47.2
months ahead of schedule we're very proud of that it's the first dam built in the country since 1967
04:53.6
so um i think it's quite a milestone for the country in terms of water supply and and scale
04:58.2
of the infrastructure malampaya the drilling program will start next year hopefully we'll have
05:03.5
gas 2026 2027 as soon as we possibly can obviously then it will be generating cash at that point on
05:10.3
the waste side we're already generating cash in cebu and we'll be building a new facility that
05:16.2
will be inaugurated here in a couple weeks in pampanga to treat large-scale volume waste 3000
05:23.8
so we're already fully operating and as you know we obviously have
05:28.2
brownfield asset acquisitions like manila water that obviously already generate cash
05:33.0
well let's go back to water you've got wawa you've got manila water
05:36.8
everyone watching us is probably wondering are we supposed to be worried about water supply
05:40.7
this summer well i don't think so okay that's very encouraging i don't think so look at manila
05:46.6
water at least uh we're well prepared okay um el nino is of course was expected the severity of
05:53.6
this flood so it's difficult to assess you know right now if i'm not mistaken i got down is
05:58.1
somewhere around 194 elevation 180 is critical normal is about over 210. um already in april
06:08.3
look things are going okay uh 50 cms is still being released from angat we're augmenting that
06:13.3
with all the other water sources that we have and little water has done a tremendous job to
06:17.3
build other water sources around laguna de bay and else so um as far as benita water is concerned no
06:23.6
Across the nation, there will obviously be pockets of challenges given the extent of the drought.
06:29.1
So from water, I want to go to waste. The waste to energy. This is pretty exciting.
06:33.4
I was looking at the Commission and Audit Report.
06:36.1
They said that in 2000, the Philippines actually unloaded or discarded about 9.1 million metric tons of solid waste.
06:44.1
That shot up to about 16.6 million metric tons in 2020.
06:49.0
And we're projected to unload 24.5 million metric tons of waste by 2045 as our populations grow and we continue to industrialize.
06:58.2
And a lot of that waste can be turned into energy. Do we have the infrastructure?
07:03.6
So, no. Today we do not. We do not. That's the answer.
07:07.2
And you know, to be clear, Mimi, we are not into waste to energy.
07:10.3
For that matter, we're advocates of not doing it.
07:14.1
We're not doing waste to energy.
07:15.2
The simple reason is that producing energy from waste is a very costly...
07:20.0
And it produces more waste along the way.
07:21.5
It produces more waste. It's a very costly energy that the population has to pay for.
07:26.1
The countries that have done that very successfully typically are countries that have benefited from subsidies.
07:32.3
So what are you guys doing about the waste?
07:33.7
So what we're doing is, thanks for asking, we're actually collecting this waste, treating it, segregating it, recycling all that can be recycled.
07:40.9
And so that's the first phase.
07:42.4
Today in Cebu, we handle over 60.
07:44.1
60% of the waste is fully automated.
07:46.8
So we actually bundle the waste into little bags, if you wish.
07:50.9
And these very large-scale industrial bundles are kept for further processing.
07:56.8
Eventually, we will take the organics and transform that into either renewable natural gas or methanol.
08:02.0
Methanol to be used actually to power ships.
08:04.8
The idea really is to really industrialize the waste business in the country at high scale.
08:11.4
And the purpose of that industrialization process...
08:14.1
...is hopefully as we go through treating the waste, we will actually avoid putting any waste into what people call today landfills.
08:20.9
That's why our facilities are material recovery facilities.
08:23.8
Over the medium term, for every ton of waste that will come in, we expect no more than 10 to 20% to be discarded.
08:29.9
Everything else will be transformed into, call it a value-added product, right?
08:34.5
Whether it is fuel or metal recycling and so on and so forth.
08:39.0
And would you say that the waste part is expected to play a role in the future?
08:43.0
And would you say that the waste part is expected to play a role in the future?
08:44.1
And would you say that the waste part is expected to play a bigger role?
08:44.9
I mean, when you make a pie, a pie chart of your operations, how big is the waste part?
08:50.4
Well, today it's small.
08:51.9
Today, the two large really elements are water and actually gas.
08:56.1
Our pump storages are not online yet.
08:58.4
They will be online by 2029, 2030.
09:01.8
So waste today is a small portion.
09:03.4
Of course, by the time we start converting that waste into fuel, then we'll take on a bigger proportion.
09:11.8
Everyone's wondering why the love affair with energy.
09:14.1
SPNEC was so short-lived.
09:16.5
They bought you out for $6 billion last year.
09:19.1
What was the rationale?
09:20.2
Are you done with solar power?
09:22.3
We're just finishing now 128 megawatt solar farm that we're building.
09:30.6
It's completed now.
09:31.5
We own 100% of that.
09:32.8
It's between province of Patangas and province of Cavite.
09:39.0
So that's going well.
09:40.5
We'll be connected in the next couple of weeks.
09:42.6
The love affair with SPNEC.
09:44.1
SPNEC is nothing to be debated.
09:46.5
You know, we thought it was, we collectively with the shareholders, thought it was best that we parted ways
09:51.8
and left the company in good hands to take the business forward.
09:56.6
And that's what we've done.
09:58.3
So we wish them great success.
10:00.1
We really hope that project will come to life.
10:01.7
What happens to your RE dreams then?
10:04.2
So you're going to do it alone.
10:05.2
So you've got a solar one.
10:06.9
And then we have our pump storages.
10:08.2
And then the pump storages.
10:10.2
And of course, before we end, everyone is excited.
10:14.1
IPO of Prime Infrastructure.
10:16.5
You guys are the favorites.
10:18.2
The darling IPO contestants or candidates for this year.
10:21.6
There was Prime Infra.
10:23.2
There's Mint and SM Primaries.
10:26.5
All of you guys seem to be pushing back the date.
10:30.6
What is the, is there a new timeline for this?
10:33.3
Well, no, there's no new timeline.
10:35.0
There's not even certainty of an IPO.
10:37.6
You know, there are many different ways to raise capital.
10:39.5
So we're evaluating all the available options.
10:42.4
We live in a very...
10:44.1
uncertain world, right?
10:45.4
As you are announcing through these headlines, right?
10:47.6
Look at what's happened to fuel prices with the Russian-Ukraine war.
10:51.7
Look at what's happening now in Iran, between Iran and Israel.
10:56.1
That combined with a very unpredictable rate market.
10:59.3
It's very difficult to decide what the best path forward is to raise capital.
11:04.6
So the public markets are not the only solution to that.
11:08.6
We're evaluating all available options and we'll make the right decisions in due time.
11:12.7
But where are you stand today?
11:13.9
Do you think that an IPO is not likely anymore?
11:17.2
At least in the next two years?
11:18.3
Probably unlikely in the medium term, yes.
11:20.4
In the medium term.
11:22.3
More exciting news ahead from Prime Infrastructure.
11:25.5
Cheers to the next seven years.
11:27.5
And employee number one.
11:29.4
How big is the workforce today?
11:31.8
Well, across the entire portfolio, well over 3,000 employees.
11:35.9
Please do visit us again if you have more exciting developments.
11:38.2
Thank you for having me.
11:38.9
A pleasure being here.
11:39.9
Congratulations on seven years.
