More than $10b power assetsin Asia up for sale
Reuters, Singapore
More than $10 billion worth of power assets in Asia are up for sale and most are likely to be sold piecemeal to buyers within the region, bankers say.Significant deals already struck this year involved mainly large-scale sales of Australian assets by US owners. The power plants and grids now on offer are in less developed markets like China and the Philippines. The State Grid Corp. of China is poised to sell 11 power plants with capacity of nearly 6,500 megawatts, estimated to carry a value of at least $2 billion, including debt, to fund its cash-starved grids. It has hired Goldman Sachs and UBS to handle the sale. The Philippines aims to raise up to $5 billion by the end of 2005 by selling power plants and grids owned by the country's debt-laden National Power Corp. (Napocor) to help the new government tackle a debt mountain draining the economy. Credit Suisse First Roston and Rothschild are advising Manila on the privatisation. The Chinese and Philippine assets would most likely be sold in pieces rather than as a whole, because the high risks associated with their markets would force potential buyers to limit exposure, bankers say.
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