Malaysia’s Ranhill still keen on Napocor assets

Malaysian conglomerate Ranhill Berhad is still keen on participating in the bidding for the assets of National Power Corp. (Napocor), highly-placed industry sources said.

The sources, however, said Ranhill’s participation in Napocor’s privatization will depend on the success of the bidding for the 600-megawatt Masinloc coal-fired power plant in July.

"They should be interested if all goes well for Masinloc,"a source said, adding that Ranhill has also yet to formally express its interest in the Napocor assets.

It will be recalled that Ranhill teamed up with YNN Pacific last year for  the purchase of the Masinloc facility.

Ranhill Berhad, a publicly-listed company, is one of Malaysia’s premier conglomerates with substantial asset investments in energy, power, water and infrastructure.

The YNN consortium won the bid for the Masinloc facility when it was auctioned in December 2004 with an offer of $561.7 million.

While it came up with the bid bond payment of $14 million, YNN-Ranhill failed to deliver the $227.4 million representing 40-percent upfront cash payment for the purchase of the coal-fired facility.

Its failure to deliver the downpayment prompted the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM), the agency tasked to dispose off the assets of Napocor, to declare as failure the Masinloc bidding.

The YNN Pacific consortium reportedly did not pursue paying the cash payment due to the lack of a supply contract for the Zambales plant. PSALM is currently working out a transition supply contract for Masinloc to ensure that the July 26 bidding would be successful.

While awaiting opportunities in the Napocor privatization, the source said Ranhill is presently focusing on its petroleum exploration projects in the Philippines.

Late last year, Ranhill signed a 90-percent participating interest in Service Contract 64 for the exploration block in Sulu. Ranhill partnered with Phil-Mal PetroEnergy of Philippines.