Funding options: Firm eyeing bonds,
bank loans
Malakoff expects to seal
deal on Kapar plant stake by end-Apr
Business Times, 26 February 2004
By RURINDER SINGH
MALAKOFF Bhd's acquisition of a 40 per cent stake in Tenaga Nasional Blid's Kapar power plant is expected to be completed by end of April.
Malakoff's chairman Tan Sri Abdul Halim Ali said all major issues relating to the purchase of the 2.420 megawatts (MW) power station had been cleared with Tenaga since last October.
"Negotiations are ongoing on the minor details," he told newsmen at a press conference after the group's annual general meeting in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
Malakoff's wholly-owned subsidiary, Kapar Energy Ventures, will acquire the plant for RM4.2 billion. The subsidiary will be raising money to fund the purchase.
Several funding options are being looked into, including bonds and bank borrowings.
Sources were quoted recently as saying that Kapar Energy was expected to issue bonds by April and has mandated Malaysian Rating Corp Blid to rate the proposed issue.
Due to the size of the issue, it is likely that the mandate will be given to a consortium of banks to spread the risk of the borrowing, said the source.
The source did not discount an Islamic structure and asset-backed securities as alternative structures to minimise the cost of borrowings.
The Kapar station will add another 968MW to raise Malakoff's total effective generation capacity to 4,743MW upon completion of the purchase.
In his annual statement to shareholders, Abdul Halim said he saw further sustainable growth arising from Tenaga's divestment programme of its minority stakes in independent power producers.
"We will also be venturing overseas for new generation opportunities, while in the operations and maintenance sector, we plan to seek new businesses locally as well as abroad," he said, adding that focus will be on the Association of South-East Asian Nations region.
With the demand for electricity in Malaysia increasing in tandem with the economic growth of the country, Abdul Halim expects the company to achieve satisfactory financial results in the current financial year.
For its year ended August 31 2003 , Malakoffs net profit rose 24.9 per cent to RM441.8 million from RM353.6 million in the previous year.
Its revenue increased 6.3 per cent to RM1.8 million from RM1.7 billion previously.
The company has proposed a first and final dividend of 25 sen share less 28 per cent tax, which is a 13.6 per cent increase from last year's dividend of 22 sen. Back to Newsclippings | To top
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