Philippines' EDC hikes capital to fund growth

MANILA, May 20 (Reuters) - Philippine geothermal power producer Energy Development Corp (EDC) (EDC.PS) said on Wednesday its board approved doubling the company's authorised capital to 30.15 billion pesos ($638 million) to fund expansion and repay debt.

"To fund EDC's growth, we should not rely on additional borrowings because debt capital markets can and have tightened in the very recent past," EDC President Paul Aquino said in a statement.

The capital hike, to be implemented mainly via a 25 percent stock dividend to be taken from the company's retained earnings as of end-2008, would give EDC fund-raising options, it said.

EDC, a unit of First Gen Corp (FGEN.PS), the country's biggest privately owned power firm, needs additional money to finance its planned acquisition of geothermal power plants from the state's National Power Corp. It also needs to repay a 22 billion yen ($229 million) loan due in June 2010.

With an installed capacity of 1,199 megawatts, EDC is the Philippines' largest geothermal energy producer. The Southeast Asian nation is the world's second-biggest geothermal producer after the United States. ($1=47.28 pesos) (Reporting by Manolo Serapio Jr., Editing by Ian Geoghegan)