GDF Suez stake in Sohar Power reduced to 35pc

03/06/2013 17:02 AST

GDF Suez announced yesterday completion of the sale of 10 per cent of its 45 per cent stake in Sohar Power Company SAOG to an investment holding company of MENA Infrastructure Fund LP.

Sohar Power Company SAOG is the owner of Sohar 1 - a 585 MW power generation and 150,000 m3/day seawater desalination plant in the Sohar Industrial Port area of the Sultanate of Oman. After the transaction, GDF Suez will continue to remain the largest shareholder with 35 per cent of the shares held by its fully owned subsidiary Kahrabel FZE.

MENA Infrastructure has also acquired an additional 10 per cent stake, through purchase of 5 per cent shares that each of WJ Towell & Co LLC and Zubair Corporation LLC held in Sohar Power, bringing its total share to 20 per cent. Ministry of Defense Pension Fund and Sogex Oman each continue to hold 5 per cent and the remaining 35 per cent of Sohar Power is owned by the public. The company has been listed on the Muscat Securities Market since the Initial Public Offering [IPO] in August 2008. MENA infrastructure is also a shareholder in Oman's United Power Company [UPC] that owns the Al Manah plant - GDF Suez's pioneering independent power project in Oman and in the GCC - out of which the Group divested in 2009 to comply with the Sultanate's regulatory limits.

Today, GDF Suez has interests in five other assets beside Sohar 1: Barka 2, a power & water production plant, and four power production plants: Al Rusail, Al Kamil, Barka 3 and Sohar 2. The last two achieved full commercial operation beginning of April 2013, adding another 1,500 MW of power to the Sultanate's end 2012 capacity of circa 4,500 MW.

Shankar Krishnamoorthy, President and CEO of GDF Suez South Asia, Middle East & Africa commented: "We welcome our new partner, MENA Infrastructure, in Sohar Power Company. Oman's power and water sector is governed by well-structured regulations.

Oman Daily Observer