The acquisition was the largest publicly announced M&A deal in the Philippines in 2017, and one of the largest power deals to date in the country.

Latham & Watkins advised San Miguel Corporation (SMC) and its subsidiary SMC Global Power Holdings Corp. (SMC Global Power) in SMC Global Power’s acquisition of Masin-AES, a Singapore-based power generation company, from AES Corporation and the Electricity Generating Public Company Limited (EGCO Group), a Thailand-based independent power producer. The sale included the 2 x 315 MW Masinloc coal-fired power plant in operation, the 335 MW Masinloc Unit 3 power turbine coal-fired power plant under construction, and the 10 MW Masinloc energy storage project in operation, all in the Philippines. The purchase price for the acquisition was approximately US$1.9 billion. The transaction also involved an acquisition financing for a portion of the purchase price. This acquisition was the largest publicly announced M&A deal in the Philippines in 2017, and marked one of the largest power deals to date in the country. The transaction closed in March 2018, following its approval by the Philippine Competition Commission in February.

Latham represented SMC and SMC Global Power in the transaction. The cross-office deal team was led by Tokyo partner Michael Yoshii, and included Hong Kong partner Benjamin Carale, Singapore partner Stephen McWilliams, Silicon Valley partner Anthony Klein, Tokyo counsel Richard Fleming, London associate Beatrice Lo, Singapore associate Lyndon Tan, Tokyo associate David Lai, and Silicon Valley associate Cassandra Wang.