Statkraft Norfund Power Invest AS, a 50-50 venture of Norway’s top power company Statkraft SF and state investment fund Norfund, is hunting for projects in Indonesia and the Philippines among other countries in Asia and Africa.
The Norwegian firm is engaged in hydropower development in poor countries. It announced early December an acquisition of Peruvian power plants with capacity of 90 megawatts and said the acquisition would form a springboard for further growth in Peru and elsewhere in Asia and Latin America.
The company’s Chief Executive Oeistein Andresen added that Statkraft Norfund Power is also hunting for projects in Indonesia, the Philippines and India, and in Africa will look at Uganda and Mozambique.
In Asia, the company inherited from Statkraft a one-fifth stake in the 210-MW Theun Hinboun run-of-river hydropower project in Laos, a 60-MW hydroelectric project in Nepal and has invested in microplants in Sri Lanka.
Statkraft Norfund Power, established in mid-2002, has identified about a dozen countries around the world, above all in Asia and Latin America but also in sub-Saharan Africa, where it believes it can find commercially viable power projects to invest in.
The company wants local partners and will consider taking stakes of 20 to 90 percent in projects, but would prefer to have majority control, said Andresen.
In Latin America, it is also looking at opportunities in Chile and Panama, and Andresen said Bolivia may also be of interest in the future.
