Bangkok--11 Jun--KASIKORNBANK
KASIKORNBANK (KBank), ICBC (Thai) and Land and Houses Bank (LH Bank) are together extending a 2.46-billion-Baht loan to Electricity Generating Pcl. (EGCO Group) to fund their investment into solar farms, which are to become the first such privately-owned projects in Thailand with sun tracking systems. Thailand is expected to become a leader in renewable energy.
Mr. Sahust Pratuknukul, President of Electricity Generating Pcl., has said that, “Our company plans to increase our power producing capacity via renewable energy. Recently, we invested in three solar power plants, the first privately-owned projects with solar tracking systems in Thailand. Such systems will help the solar panels to achieve greater power-producing efficiency than with fixed-panel systems.”
The three projects to be funded include their Saraburi-located SPP2, Sisaket-located SPP3 and SPP4, near the provincial borderline between Sisaket and Ubon Ratchathani; they will have energy producing capacities of 8 megawatts at the first two, and 6 megawatts at the latter plant. The three projects — with a combined output of 22 megawatts — are to be 99.99 percent owned by EGCO Group, which has been granted an ‘Electricity Adder’ of 8 Baht/Kw over the basic rate for 10 years, starting from the date of commercial electricity delivery.
“This investment is part of EGCO Group’s target of expanding into the renewable energy business. The company aims to increase their generating capacity to 300 megawatts within 2015, with the government’s policy of boosting renewable and clean energy resource use for domestic needs to create a low carbon society. It also reinforces EGCO Group’s corporate social responsibility direction consistently held over the past two decades,” Mr. Sahust said.
Mr. Vasin Vanichvoranun, KBank Executive Vice President, said that Kbank is the Mandated Lead Arranger in the 2.46-billion-Baht syndicated loan, wherein ICBC (Thai) and LH Bank also extend some of that credit line to the solar power projects. Of the total, SPP2 will use 868.10 million Baht, SPP3 will get 903.80 million Baht and SPP4 is to get 683.90 million Baht. The project financing is being extended to cover construction and operational work to achieve project sustainability, plus the acquisition of technologies and the hiring of power plant professionals.
“Along with domestic investors, KBank is ready to assist in driving renewable power projects with promising growth potential, with our knowledgeable team members providing financial and advisory services. KBank is the domestic leader in financial services to the power generation and renewable energy industry, Mr. Vasin said, adding that, “We expect to attain an 80-percent share of the renewable energy industry in domestic market.”