BCPG budgets B40bn for 5-year Asian expansion
SET-listed renewable energy firm BCPG Plc has allotted a budget of 40 billion baht for its five-year business plan through 2023 to expand across Asia-Pacific.
BCPG is a subsidiary of SET-listed Bangchak Corporation Plc and plans to expand via new investment, asset acquisitions and takeovers, both domestically and overseas.
Charnvit Trangadisaikul, executive vice-president for corporate business development, said BCPG plans to expand in Australia, Laos, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam.
The company also wants to add to existing operations in Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand.
“We are looking for new business opportunities from photovoltaic solar, wind turbines, biomass and geothermal,” Mr Charnvit said.
He said energy policymakers in each country are enthusiastic about adopting renewable power, offering full investment privileges, while electricity demand in each country is also predicted to rise every year through 2023.
Most countries have policies to expand renewable power in the long run. For instance, Vietnam by 2030 plans to have renewable power generation of 27 gigawatts, while Taiwan aims for 10GW and South Korea wants 50GW.
Australia plans to retire several coalfired power plants and add renewable power generation of 38GW by 2036. Laos is keen to be the battery of Asia, exporting electricity to Thailand and Vietnam.
Mr Charnvit said the expansion will not focus on the amount of capacity or projects, as some assets can gain a high return on investment and BCPG can resell with acceptable value.
In early October, BCPG completed asset transactions for two solar power projects in Japan to become part of an infrastructure fund. Those projects have a total production capacity of 27.5 megawatts: the Nikaho project with 13.2MW and the Nagi project with 14.3MW. The infrastructure fund is also in Japan.
This asset transaction had a value of ¥10.4 billion (3.02 billion baht), and BCPG booked a net gain after a 658-million-baht corporate income tax deduction.
After completing the transaction, BCPG’s financial capability is enlarged and the company expects to obtain loans of up to 30 billion baht in the future.
BCPG aims for growth in ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) of 13-15% during the new expansion.
Mr Charnvit said BCPG has four or five power projects to acquire in the future with a capacity of 100-300MW each. The deals will be finalised early next year.
BCPG has renewable power of 381MW combined in Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines and Thailand. A further 191MW from a dozen projects under construction will come on stream in 2019.
BCPG has allocated a 5-billionbaht budget for 2018-19 to develop projects in the pipeline such as a 10MW wind power farm in Thailand, 151MW of solar in Japan, a 6MW wind farm in the Philippines and 24MW of geothermal in Indonesia.