News

May 6, 2016 - Attarat Power Company (APCO) announced that its shareholders Eesti Energia, YTL Power International Berhad (YTL) and Near East Investment (NEI) have signed an agreement to introduce a new shareholder Yudean Group (Yudean) to the project to develop an oil shale fired 554 MW (gross) power plant and mine in Jordan. Yudean has agreed to purchase 45% of the shares and YTL a further 15% of the shares with Eesti Energia stepping down to 10% and Near East Investments exiting the project. Following the completion of the share transfers which is subject to achieving full financial close APCO will be indirectly owned by Eesti Energia AS of Estonia (10%), YTL Power International Bhd of Malaysia (45%) and Yudean Group of China (45%).

Hando Sutter , Chairman of the Management Board of Eesti Energia: “Estonia has 100 years of experience utilizing oil shale and we are happy that Jordan is about to start utilizing its abundant energy resource. We are one step closer towards establishing Jordan´s first oil shale fired power plant. We now hope to get final approvals for the loan guarantees from Sinosure and Chinese Government in order to finally conclude the financing and proceed with construction.”

Dato´ Yeoh Seok Hong , Executive Director of YTL Power International Berhad: “YTL Power is very pleased to increase our stake to 45% and welcome Yudean to be our partner and jointly lead the development of this milestone project and to support the Jordanian Government in furthering its policy of energy independence. The 554 MW oil shale fired power plant will cover a substantial portion of Jordan´s energy need and reduce the Kingdom´s import of oil products for power generation. The sponsors’ combined extensive experience in power generation and mining will drive this project to fruition, beginning a process for Jordan to achieve cost effective and reliable energy independence.”

Huang Zhenhai , Director and General Manager of Yudean Group: “We are glad to join a project of strategic importance for Jordan that will provide a sustainable, viable and much needed solution to the Kingdom’s current and long term energy challenges."

Earlier this year APCO signed agreements with Bank of China (BoC) and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) to provide debt funding for the project. The USD 1.6 billion debt financing will be provided on the basis of support by China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation (Sinosure). The sponsors continue working on a number of conditions precedent before full financial close can be achieved, including receiving final approvals for the export credit insurance from Sinosure and the Government of China. The power plant is scheduled to start generating electricity for local consumption in 2019.