What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

Aboitiz Equity Ventures (AEV) Legal successfully negotiated and executed a PhP3.6Bn Omnibus Notes Facility and Security Agreement with a local universal bank to finance the development and construction of the 75MW solar power plant located in Pangasinan.

The Pangasinan solar project is crucial in the effort of the Aboitiz Group to develop more renewable energy projects in line with its 10-year growth strategy to contribute to a more reliable, cost-efficient, and sustainable power system for the country.

AEV Legal also assisted the Aboitiz Group’s power arm in negotiating and executing a P20bn loan agreement with a government financial institution to fund the growth of its renewable energy portfolio.

The loan facility aligns with the Aboitiz Group’s ten-year strategy of growing its renewable energy portfolio to 4,600 MW, or half of the total 9,200 MW capacity, alongside its thermal assets, which its power arm targets to generate by 2030.

Additionally, AEV Legal was at the helm of its power unit’s acquisition of an additional 35.4% in STEAG State Power Inc. which will put its power unit’s stake to a total of 69.4%. This acquisition is a good opportunity to help sustainably manage an existing generation facility, which is a vital component of the Mindanao grid, and provides affordable and reliable power to many Filipinos. This plant will be able to export much needed capacity to the Luzon grid, which has experienced tightness of supply reserves in recent years. The acquisition will result in the expansion of attributable net income without adding new coal capacity to the grid.

Why are in-house lawyers well-placed to drive change in their organisations?   

AEV Legal is the Aboitiz Group’s in-house legal team. In 2022, we catered, and provided legal support and services, to 14 AEV Corporate Support Units, and 139 Business Units (BUs). AEV Legal provides effective legal solutions that address AEV’s and the BUs’ needs and challenges, managing legal and regulatory compliance risks, and championing good corporate governance, while always advancing the Aboitiz Group’s business and the communities it serves.

In 2022, AEV embarked on the Great Transformation (GT 2025), with the goal of becoming the Philippines’ first techglomerate. As a techglomerate, all businesses under the Aboitiz Group are expected to work together to harness the benefits of technology and transformative innovation in order to add value to each other, and create a techglomerate premium.

AEV Legal took this challenge head on, embarking on its own initiatives in support of GT 2025, pursuing excellence in its day-to-day responsibilities demonstrating Dedication, Innovation, Efficiency & Value, Encouragement & Improvement, and Diversity and Inclusion, all the while living the Aboitiz core values of Integrity, Teamwork, Innovation, and Responsibility.

The AEV Legal team is a team that is highly dedicated to its purpose of enabling AEV and its BUs to achieve their corporate objectives. This dedication is evidenced in part by the successful groundbreaking deals that the team worked on and continues to work on to this day.

What diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives have you and your legal department been championing within your company’s endeavours? 

AEV Legal does its part in championing Diversity and Inclusion in the workplace. Aside from actively participating in the Aboitiz Group’s D&I initiatives, it conducts learning sessions, among one of them is the E-Learning on Safe Spaces Act which was launched on 23 September 2022. It is the first ever e-learning in the Filipino language, which was created for our stakeholders. It was created to fit our BUs plant setup to ensure the business unit’s compliance with the Safe Spaces Act, Republic Act No. 11313.

As we live in a fast-paced world today, what skills will a corporate legal team need to succeed in the modern in-house industry? 

Aside from having the intellectual humility to admit when we don’t know something, and to seek out those who do possess that expertise, it is crucial that an in-house lawyer possess the ability to communicate effectively with their stakeholders. Each member of the legal team must also have an intimate understanding of the business as well as the business’ operating environment and be able to use this knowledge in providing legal support to its stakeholders. This allows the in-house legal team to remain relevant and add real value to the organisation.