News

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 a number of conditions), 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%). Eesti Energia is required to maintain the 10% shareholding for a certain time period defined in project agreements.

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 is expected to be provided on the basis of support by China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation (Sinosure).

The completion of the share purchase agreement and full financial close of the project is subject to achieving a number of further milestones, including receiving final approvals for the export credit insurance from Sinosure and the Government of China.