Leader to invest US$150mil in new Cambodia power plant

Sean H’ng ... ‘power-purchase agreement will be inked soon.’

The Star Online
http://biz.thestar.com.my

Monday June 29, 2009

By DAVID TAN

GEORGE TOWN: Leader Universal Holdings Bhd will invest in a new power plant worth US$150mil to US$160mil in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, which is expected to commence operations in 2012.

Group managing director and chief executive officer Sean H’ng Chun Hsiang said the power-purchase agreement for the 100MW coal-fired power plant, which would replace the earlier agreement executed for the 200MW project, would be inked soon.

“We are also in talks with banks now and expect to finalise the financing for the project before the end of this year. We hope to start construction work on the plant soon,” he told StarBiz.

In February 2007, the group announced its winning bid to develop a 200MW coal-fired power plant in Sihanoukville with a local Cambodian partner on a 50:50 joint venture.

However, on Feb 1, 2009, it announced that the Cambodian government had approved to split the 200MW plant into two projects of 100MW each, allowing each original shareholder to develop its own project.

On June 11, Leader said it had formed a joint venture with Cambodian International Investment Development Group Co Ltd to develop the plant.

Leader owns 80% of the joint-venture company, which is also planning to develop another 700MW coal-fired power plant in Sihanoukville.

“This project will be progressively developed after the completion of the 100MW plant in 2012.

“The 700MW plant will be carried out in various phases, with each phase having the capacity to generate 100MW-200MW of power supply, to gradually meet the energy needs of Cambodia,” H’ng added.

Presently, the capacity of the power plants in Cambodia was around 410MW, compared with the forecast demand of 808MW by Electricite du Cambodge (the local state-owned power company), H’ng said.

“The demand is expected to increase to 1,915MW in 2015, eventually hitting 3,867MW in 2020.

“There are vast business opportunities for the power business in Cambodia. We have been building some power distribution lines there. We hope to also explore opportunities in the area of power transmission,” he added.

Leader’s first power plant, using heavy fuel oil, is located in Phnom Penh, catering to its one million population.

For the first quarter 2009, the power business contributed 8% to the group’s total revenue of RM444.7mil and 35% of its total operating profit of RM26.6mil.

On the group’s cable business, Leader’s order book as at end-March stood at about RM700mil, excluding some major recurring orders.

“Almost 40% of the group’s total revenue in the first quarter was from export orders. The group exports to over 20 countries in Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Oceania.

“We will continue to look at new opportunities in the overseas markets. The group is confident of the near-term prospects, given the implementation of the Government’s stimulus packages and also the demand arising from the implementation of the Bakun power transmission projects,” he added.

On the group’s revenue for 2009, H’ng said that although the prices of both aluminium and copper had increased recently, they were unlikely to hit the peak seen in 2008.

“Thus, we expect the group’s revenue to be correspondingly lower this year. The cost of aluminium and copper are mostly passed through to our customers.

“So although the movement of prices of aluminium and copper will impact our revenue, it will not materially impact our bottom line,” he said.

For the group’s first quarter ended March 31, revenue dropped by 31% compared with the previous corresponding quarter due to lower aluminium and copper prices.

The average London Metal Exchange price of copper was US$7,796 per tonne for the first quarter 2008 compared with US$3,428 for the first quarter of 2009. Similarly, the average price of aluminium dropped from US$2,742 per tonne in the first quarter 2008 to US$1,360 in the 2009 quarter.