Tata Power, Reliance Energy, GMR bid for Singapore power firm
13 Dec 2007
Mumbai: Three Indian companies - Tata Power, Reliance Energy and GMR Infrastructure - have submitted bids for acquiring Singapore government's stake in Tuas Power.
Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings had set a December 13 deadline for the bids for Tuas Power, whose sale could fetch as much as $2 billion.
Tuas Power is the first of three power firms Temasek Holdings hopes to sell by June 2009. Temasek Holding had in October announced plans to sell stakes in three power utilities - Tuas Power, PowerSeraya and Senoko.
It said Tuas Power, which has an installed generation capacity of 2,670 MW, would be the first to be sold.
Tuas Power's assets include 1,200 MW of oil-fired steam turbine plants and 1,470 MW of gas-fired combined cycle plants. The company supplies all its production to National Electricity Market of Singapore.
It earned revenues of 2.28 billion Singapore dollars (US$1.6 billion) and a net profit of 177 million Singapore dollars in the fiscal ended March 31, 2007.
While Tata Power and Reliance Energy have bid on their own, GMR has teamed up with Australia's Macquarie Bank and Kuwait's sovereign wealth fund to bid for the stake, reports said.
A total of 15 companies and buy-out firms have submitted non-binding bids. The international bidders could include China Light and Power and Japan's Marubeni.
The Singapore government is expected to announce the winning bidder by the first quarter of next year.
