Tycoon Edgar Saavedra’s CREC, Levanta To Build $550 Million Philippine Wind Energy Projects

Citicore Renewable Energy Corp. (CREC)—controlled by construction magnate Edgar Saavedra— has teamed up with Levanta Renewables to jointly develop onshore wind energy projects in the Philippines as the Southeast Asian nation moves to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels to produce electricity.

The joint venture will build and operate four projects with 375 megawatts in combined capacity worth $550 million, Saavedra said via text message to Forbes Asia. The projects will be completed in four to five years, he said.

Levanta—a Singapore-based renewable energy platform backed by London-based private equity firm Actis—will form the venture with Citicore Wind Energy, the owner of the projects and a wholly-owned unit of Citicore Renewable Energy. Since its founding in 2004, Actis has raised $25 billion to invest in renewables energy as well as digital platforms and supply chain infrastrcutrure.

“There is no better partner to take this step with than Levanta,” Oliver Tan, president of CREC, said in a statement. “They bring decades of extensive technical and operational experience to this partnership and to our onshore wind industry.”

Saavedra is among Philippine tycoons who are pouring money into renewables amid the government’s push to increase the share of renewables in the nation’s electricity production energy mix to 50% by 2040 from about 21% currently.

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CREC earlier this year raised about 10.3 billion pesos ($178 million) through an IPO and sale of a 28% stake in a power REIT, providing initial funds to jump start a $3 billion solar power project that will generate 5 gigawatts of electricity when completed in five years time. It also aims to build 3 gigawatts of wind energy capacity in the medium to long term.

With wind and solar projects across the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, Levanta aims to have an operating capacity of 1.5 gigawatts in Southeast Asia by 2028.

“This partnership marks Levanta’s entry into the Philippines wind market,” Levanta CEO Sudhir Nunes said in a statement. “ We intend to leverage our partnership with Citicore Renewable to pursue more utility scale renewable energy projects in the Philippines.”

Saavedra’s push into renewables propelled the civil engineer’s return to Forbes list of the country’s richest after a four-year gap. Saavedra—who exited the roster in 2020 as the pandemic hit his construction business as well as the operations of an airport joint venture he unloaded in 2022—has a net worth of $270 million when the list of the Philippines’ 50 Richest was published in August.