Thai Glow buys Laos power plant for US$45m

Thailand’s Glow Energy PCL, a unit of French utility Suez SA, said on Monday its board had approved plans to buy a 67.25% stake in a Lao power plant for US$45 million.

A subsidiary of Glow Energy will buy the stake in the Houay Ho plant from Stopper Finance B.V. and Suez-Energy Asia Co, which are subsidiaries of Suez-Tractebel, Glow Energy said in a statement.

The 152-MW Houay Ho hydropower plant has paid-up capital of US$50 million and has a 30-year contract with the Lao government. Most of its power is sold to Thailand.

The purchase in Laos should help boost Glow Energy’s net profit by 3% this year, finance chief Suthiwong Kongsiri has said. Glow has the capacity to produce 1,708 MW of power, or 7% of Thailand’s capacity, and 967 tonnes per hour of steam for industrial customers. It plans to boost power capacity by 50% by 2011 to meet rising demand.

At 0500 GMT, Glow’s shares were up 0.85% at 29.50 baht, while the main Thai index fell 1.27%.

 

Category: ResourceAsia