EGAT affiliates expand overseas investment

BANGKOK, June 26 (TNA) - Companies under the umbrella of the state-run Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) are expanding their overseas investment projects. Thana Putarungsi, Acting President of EGAT International (EGATi), told journalists on Thursday that he has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Le Tuan Phong, Deputy Director-General of Vietnam's Energy Department, for the construction of a coal-fired power plant with its electricity generating capacity of 1,200 megawatts. Thana said that the plant, located in the special economic zone of Vietnam's Quang Tri Province, will have the construction of its first and second power generating facilities completed by June and December 2021 respectively, after which the plant will be fired with imported coal. Thana revealed that the Vietnamese government earlier allowed EGATi to invest and develop the power plant on Aug 12, 2013, aimed to help turn Quang Tri into an industrial center of central Vietnam. Meanwhile, ECGO Group, another EGAT affiliate, announced that it has acquired a 40.95-per cent stake, worth 453 million US dollars or 14.75 billion baht, in the 630-megawatt Masinloc Power Plant in Zambales Province on the Philippines' Luzon Island from US-based AES Corporation. The share transfer will be finished in the third quarter of this year and the share acquisition will result in AES' holding its 51 per cent-stake, while International Finance Corporation (IFC) will have its 8.05 per cent-stake in the power plant.(TNA)