SET-listed company announces power expansion
The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) listed electricity arm of PTT Plc, Global Power Synergy Co (GPSC), announced at the start of January that it would be looking to expand its business in Thailand and across Asean on the heels of the start of the Asean Economic Community (AEC).
The CEO of GPSC stated the company had allocated 18 billion baht to fund its expansion plans, of which 10 billion baht was raised from its initial public offering in the middle of last year, and the remainder coming from loans.
Among the allocations for the investment budget will be some strategic mergers and acquisitions and the company also has plans to seek out partners in the Asean region to boost its power-generating capacity.
The company is quite confident the power industry will continue to grow given the support it receives from the Thai government and GPSC’s business links within the new AEC.
GPSC is hoping to cash in on the almost certain large-scale increases in demand for power in the growing economies of the Southeast Asian region, alluding no doubt to opportunities in places such as Myanmar and Laos.
GPSC management said it has a five-year plan in place with its various arms being tasked with increasing its power-generating capacity by 17 percent per year.
If it achieves this objective it would mean GPSC would reach a production capacity of 2,850 megawatts by 2021. Of this, 10 percent would come from alternative energy sources and 30 percent from outside Thailand.
While this year will see expansion, the company executives stated the 2017 to 2018 years are expected to see a significant rise in capacity. GPSC will be in a very good position to sell a large volume of power into Asean member states as these nations, especially the emerging ones, will be looking to expand investment in infrastructure and local power facilities to meet the growth.
Locally, the GPSC management is quoted as saying that 2016 will see the power industry expand further, mainly due to government measures, particularly in the alternative energy area as well as rising domestic demand.
The government is expected to invite private sector participation by way of power-selling agreements for solar power as well as biomass and waste power plants.
GPSC said it will start logging more income from the IRPC Clean Power Phase 1 project, which started commercial operations in November last year.
Revenue for this year will also be enhanced when a 125-megawatt power project comes on line later this year.
The company states it takes a long-term view, expecting returns to grow substantially during each five-year plan.
