18-06-2010
Tenaga Nasional Bhd, Malaysia’s state-controlled generator, will bid for a RM7 billion (US$2.1 billion) government project to upgrade power plants as the economic recovery boosts electricity demand.Construction of a new coal-fired plant at the utility’s existing station in Manjung would start in early 2011 and be completed by the end of 2014, president Che Khalib said in an interview at the company headquarters in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.Malaysia’s Energy Commission will soon call for bids to upgrade power plants by 2015 as the electricity reserve margin could fall below 20 per cent if capacity isn’t increased, the Business Times reported on June 16, citing Energy Minister Peter Chin. Power demand may rise by as much as five per cent a year in the next five years, in step with the government’s target of six per cent annual growth through 2015, Che Khalib said.
Tenaga may have to compete for the project with MMC Corp, Malaysia’s second-biggest electricity producer, and Jimah Energy Ventures, an independent power producer with a 25-year licence to operate a 1,400-megawatt coal-fired plant near Port Dickson in the southern state of Negri Sembilan.If Tenaga wins the bid, it may sell bonds in the middle of 2011 to help finance the project, Tenaga president Che Khalib said in an interview in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. “The usual funding structure will be 20 per cent equity and 80 per cent debt, so probably around RM4 billion to RM5 billion kind of debt-raising” would be needed.Tenaga shares rose 0.2 per cent to RM8.37 at 10:39 a.m. on the Malaysian stock exchange, headed for the highest close since May 19. They’ve dropped 0.4 per cent this year, lagging behind the benchmark index’s 3 per cent gain in the same period.
The government is planning 52 infrastructure and development projects worth RM63 billion over the next five years, including two coal-fired power plants, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said on June 10. The contracts will be put up for open tender, he said. -- Bloomberg
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