Samutprakarn Cogeneration Co.

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Samutprakarn Cogeneration Company Limited signed a 21-year power purchase agreement with EGAT in 1997. The company committed to invest US$101 million in the construction of a cogeneration power plant with 126 MW capacity. In March 1998, Tractebel (a subsidiary of SUEZ) purchased 100% of the company's shares from Sithe Energies. Commercial operations started in August 1999, selling more than half of its output to EGAT and the surplus to industrial consumers. Gulf Electric purchased the Samutprakarn Cogeneration from Tractebel in 2002 and intended to refinance the loans and adjust the project's debt to equity ratio in the process of raising Bt 5,400m via IFC of Thailand. The funds were to be used to refinance the loans and adjust the debt to equity ratio for this project and for the Nong Khae Project. Samutprakarn Cogeneration Company Limited was a subsidiary of Gulf Electric Public Company Limited (GEC), which was a joint venture between partially divested Electricity Generating Company (EGCO) of Thailand (50%), Japan Electric Power Development Company Limited (EPDC or J-POWER) (49%) and Mit Siam (1%). EGCO was set up in May of 1992 as a holding company to divest some of the assets of the state-owned Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT). In November 1994, EGCO floated 204 million shares, or 51% of the company, at 22 baht each, raising US$178.5 million and effectively making it a privately run company. The shares made their debut on the Thai stock market in January of 1995. Although EGAT retained a 48% interest in EGCO, the company was to be run as a separate entity and was to be out of the EGAT's sphere. In July of 1998, Hong Kong utility firm China Light and Power Co. Ltd. (CLP Power) acquired a 14.9% stake in EGCO for US$241 million. EGAT then owned 25% of EGCO. As of 2004, the stake holders of EGCO were EGAT (25.41%), CLP Power (22.42%), Thai investors (30.09%), and foreign investors (22.08%). Gulf Electric was in the process of raising Bt 5,400m via IFC of Thailand. The funds will be used to refinance the loans and adjust the debt to equity ratio for this project and for the Nong Khae Project.