MFC Energy Fund buys stake in Cellennium

The MFC Energy Fund yesterday signed a deal to acquire 20 per cent of Cellennium's shares worth Bt355 million as part of its investment in the high-potential energy business.

Pichit Akrathit, president of MFC Asset Management, said yesterday that Cellennium's outlook was promising as it holds the patent for vanadium redox flow, a technology for storing and generating electricity by using vanadium energy cells.

Pichai Chunhavajira, chief financial officer of PTT and chairman of the MFC Energy Fund Committee, said the stake in Cellennium reflected the fund's long-term strategy and the vanadium battery would have high demand in the foreign market.

Krisada Kampanatsanyakorn, chairman of Cellennium (Thailand), said the company started the R&D project in 1990 and now has 10 patents. It will set up a factory to produce vanadium redox batteries and two small power plants, each capable of generating 10 megawatts. The three projects are worth a combined Bt3.23 billion.

The return on investment of each power plant is at least 20 per cent, he said. Cellennium is the latest firm that MFC has invested in this year after spending Bt20 million on biodiesel producer E-Ester and Bt280 million on both ethanol producer Impress Ethanol and Impress Farming.