Marubeni to explore joint power projects in South East Asia

• 10 years ago (2013-06-14)
• Junior Isles

Asia 851

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Japanese trading house Marubeni Corp., Japan’s biggest non-utility power investor, will look into building generation plants in Southeast Asia with Thailand’s state-owned PTT Plc.

Marubeni and PTT’s Global Power Synergy Co. (SYNG) will explore the construction of power stations in Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam and Thailand, according to PTT Chief Financial Officer Surong Bulakul, and will each then decide whether to pursue the joint project ‒ the exploratory partnership implying no legal commitment.

Newspaper reports have claimed the two companies would jointly invest 1 trillion yen ($10.6 billion) to fund the plants, together comprising 5000 MW of power capacity.

Marubeni is looking to Southeast Asian investment as it seeks to reduce its reliance on domestic Japanese commodities for earnings. By contrast, Global Power is looking to boost its generation capacity from 1600 MW to 6000 MW by 2020.

Marubeni recorded an unprecedented 205.7 billion yen profit over financial year ending March 31, 2013, with metals contributing 23 per cent of this figure, and 15 per cent from sales of energy commodities.

The Japanese trading house has steadily grown its investments in power plants and water treatment businesses over the last 10 years. Power projects’ proportional contribution to Marubeni‘s net profits has grown nearly 14-fold since 2010.