F&S Holdings has sold its shares in AirAsia Philippines, citing plans to concentrate on power and the ports sector.
The company led by businessman and concurrent congressman Mikee Romero and his wife Sheila, said the shares were bought by AA Com Travel Philippines Inc.
The transaction makes AA Com Travel Philippines the sole Filipino owner and majority shareholder at 60 percent of the country’s third-largest airline, with the remaining 40 percent owned by Capital A Bhd founders Tony Fernandez and Datuk Karmarudin Menarum.
“We are excited at the opportunity to consolidate our business enterprises and realign them to focus more on our core businesses in power and ports… Needless to say, we did not want to undertake this while the pandemic was ongoing and nearly every business – particularly air travel – was severely hampered. That would not embody the kind of relationship we had with our partners,” said Sheila Romero who also serves as chairman of F&S Holdings.
Romero also said the group will continue to invest aggressively in Globalport terminals, which now operates ten ports in the country, and power businesses.
CapitalOne Energy Corp. is the holding company combining the Romero group’s power generation companies.
The company has invested in renewable energy through Alterpower Digos Solar Inc. which operates a 40-megawatt (MW) solar power plant in Digos, Davao del Sur, as well as Fort Pilar Energy which operates a 100-MW battery energy storage system power plant in Zamboanga Del Sur.
The group likewise includes the Belgrove Power Corp. which owns the 650-MW Malaya thermal power plant, a must-run unit of the Department of Energy, said Joseph Omar Castillo, F&S Holdings chairman, said.
He said CapitalOne Energy is expanding its solar power portfolio with the development of new sites in Cagayan, Nueva Ecija, Batangas, Marinduque and Palawan with combined capacity of 180 MW.
