Actis completes $202m Cameroonian electricity deal
Date
June 16, 2014
Subscribe to our newsletter and get the latest news and business opportunities in your inbox
Actis announced that it will pay to AES Corporation US$202 million for a 56% stake in Cameroon's national integrated utility, Société Nationale d'Electricité (SONEL), and in two independent power plants, Kribi and Dibamba.
Actis will own SONEL, and Globeleq, Actis' wholly-owned private power company, will directly own and operate Kribi and Dibamba. AES Corporation received US$162 million at closing and consistent with the sale agreement, the remaining non-contingent US$40 million will be received in June 2016.
Torbjorn Caesar, Actis Co-Head, stated:
We are pleased to have completed the transaction with AES. Cameroon is a country with great potential, and our considerable experience in the energy space, combined with our expertise in Africa, makes us confident that we can deliver strong infrastructure and excellent customer service.
SONEL provides 933MW of generation and supplies electricity to over 800,000 customer connections throughout the country. SONEL is an integrated utility with an installed generation capacity of 933 MW. The transmission and distribution network comprises of over 32,000km of high voltage, medium voltage and low voltage network across the entire country.
Kribi Power Station is a 215 MW natural gas-fired thermal power plant in Cameroon. The power station is located in the community of Mpolongwe, approximately 10 kilometres, by road, north of the coastal town of Kribi , in Océan Department, South Province, on the Gulf of Guinea, at the mouth of the Kienké River. The plant is also designed to use diesel, if the natural gas is unavailable.
The Dibamba power station is an 87 MW heavy-fuel oil (HFO) fired power plant. The plant is located at Yassa village about 15 km from the regional center, Douala. HFO is delivered to site via road. Construction started in 2008, and commercial operations commenced in August 2009.
Actis is an experienced energy investor, supplying over 33 million consumers around the world with electricity every day. Since 2002, the firm has invested over $1.4 billion into the sector, including Umeme, Uganda's electricity distribution company, where it invested in 2005.
