CLP May Buy Philippines' Power Asset, Australian Retailing Unit

Sept. 5 (Bloomberg) -- CLP Holdings Ltd., the bigger of Hong Kong's two electricity suppliers, is in talks to buy Mirant Corp.'s power assets in the Philippines and is keen to acquire a retailing business in Australia.
Talks to buy the Philippines assets are in the early stages, Richard McIndoe, CLP's group director in Australia, told reporters in Hong Kong today. CLP is also interested in the Queensland state energy business, he said.
Australia's Queensland government has invited companies to bid for the state's energy retailing business, which may be worth A$1 billion ($760 million). Separately, Mirant, a U.S. power company that emerged from bankruptcy in January, is auctioning off plant and utility stakes in the Philippines.
Mirant's Philippines assets are profitable now, McIndoe said. The assets, which have a combined capacity of 2,203 megawatts, may be worth $3 billion, the Financial Times newspaper reported in August.
Mirant, which bought the Philippine plants from Hong Kong's Hopewell Holdings in 1999, is selling the power units as the company is under investor pressure to lift its share price.
CLP, a 105-year-old company controlled by the family of Chairman Michael Kadoorie, is expanding abroad to counter slowing profit growth in Hong Kong. The company grew its Australian business after buying Singapore Power Ltd.'s retailing and generation operations in the country last June. It renamed the business TRUenergy.
Queensland Acquisition
CLP may raise funds for the Queensland state assets, which comprise Sun Retail and Sun Gas, by selling shares in TRUenergy, the South China Morning Post newspaper reported on Aug. 21.
The Queensland government is selling the state's utility Energex in two stages. The first stage of the sale process will involve Sun Retail, which has about 800,000 electricity customers and about 53,000 liquefied natural gas users, and Sun Gas, a natural gas retailing business with about 80,000 customers, the government said in July.
The third business, which involves retail sales to mostly commercial and industrial customers, will be sold later.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ying Lou in Hong Kong at ylou1@bloomberg.net . Last Updated: September 5, 2006 07:51 EDT