Egco earmarks B30bn budget for investment

Bulk will go to expansion abroad

SET-listed Electricity Generating Plc (Egco), an independent power producer, has set aside an investment budget of 30 billion baht in 2017 for expansion in Thailand, two other Asean countries, and Australia.

President and chief executive Chanin Chaonirattisai said 5 billion baht will be assigned for investment at home, while 25 billion will go to expansion in the Philippines, Indonesia and Australia.

The budget is slightly below the 33 billion baht set for investment last year.

“The investment budget will also facilitate mergers and acquisitions both in Thailand and overseas,” said Mr Chanin.

Of the total, some 20 billion baht will stem from company cash on hand and the other 10 billion will come from commercial bank loans.

Mr Chanin said the firm has seven projects in the pipeline at home and abroad with total power generating capacity of 997 megawatts.

It also has six projects that are under construction and due to start commercial operations from this year to 2019.

But the 30 billion baht investment budget excludes two projects in Laos. One is the 912MW Pak Beng hydropower project, which is still waiting for approval from the Mekong River Commission. The other project in Laos is the 650MW Nam Thuen 1 hydropower plant, which is pending review from the Attorney General for a power purchase agreement. It also excludes one project in Indonesia.

Major Egco investments abroad this year include geothermal power plants in Salak and Darajat in Indonesia, the Masinloc unit 3 and the San Buenaventura power plants in the Philippines.

In Thailand, the company has three projects for small power producers TJ Cogen, TP Cogen and SK Cogen.

Mr Chanin said Egco forecasts additional power generating capacity of 400MW this year.

Currently, the company has total power generating capacity of 4,122MW from 24 power plants in five countries.

Egco plans to expanded its proportion of renewable energy to 30% of it total power generating capacity by 2026, up from 18% at present.

The company posted a net profit of 9.1 billion baht in 2016 and will continue with plans to maintain a return on equity of at least 10%.

Mr Chanin said Egco’s power plants located in the southern region, including the Khanom power plant and the BLCP power plant, are ready to produce more energy to offset falls in power supply if plans to develop a coal-fired power plant in Krabi are scrapped.

EGCO shares closed yesterday on the Stock Exchange of Thailand at 205 baht, down three baht, in trade worth 144 million baht.