Under the plan, the company will buy a 50-per-cent stake in BLCP power plant from China Light Power, pay back US$80 million (Bt2.9 billion) in debt owed to Rayong Power Plant, and invest Bt930 million in the Gulf Kaeng Khoi 2, president Visit Akaravinak said.

He said the company had Bt5 billion in cash flow but that would not be sufficient for the projects above. "However, the company is yet to determine whether to borrow money from banks or to issue bonds," Visit said.

The purchase of the 1,400-megawatt BLCP power plant was already underway, he said, and Egco expected to sign a deal by November.

Visit said Egco, 25 per cent of which is owned by Egat, expected to win 30 per cent of total bids for independent power plants (IPPs) next year.

Thanks to its Rayong and Khanom power plants, Egco's revenue this year was up by about 16 per cent to Bt9.88 billion. Net profit for the period was Bt3.65 billion, up 56 per cent from last year.

Excluding the impact of foreign exchange, the net profit in the first half this year was Bt3.23 billion, up 19 per cent from Bt504 million in the same period last year.

Visit said Egco now shared 9 per cent of total power generation here.

It plans to raise the figure to 11 per cent in the next five years and 20 per cent in 10 years.

He said the company was developing four new power plants - Kaeng Khoi 2 (KK2), Nam Theun 2, Gulf Yala Green and the Amata Power Bang Pakong Expansion.

The new plants would provide a combined power generation capacity of 1,021 megawatts, or 12 per cent of new capacity from 2006 to 2010, to make Egco the biggest independent power producer in Thailand.

Currently, Egco has 11 operating plants with total power generation capacity of 2,405 megawatts.

Egco hopes to gain know-how from Mitsubishi.

The latter and CLP are parent companies of CLPT, which has a 22.4-per-cent stake in Egco.

Chalida  Ekvitthayavechnukul

The Nation