UTC
eyes PowerGen
By Roxanne Stapleton
Trinidad Express
Port
Spain
Petroleumworldtt.com
12 03 06
THE UNIT Trust Corporation is interested in acquiring
a stake in Mirant's 39 per cent share in PowerGen.
Mirant,
earlier in the year, announced that it was selling
its Caribbean and Philippines assets to enhance
shareholder value.
UTC
chairman Amoy Chang Fong made the revelation yesterday
at the launch of UTC's Energy Fund, at its Port
of Spain headquarters.
"We
would be interested in that," she said, adding
that a strategic investment team is looking into
it.
"We
have limitations on the level of the investment
that we can make, in terms of the exposure to any
one company and exposure of the fund size to any
one company.
"I'm
not sure what the status of the prospective sale
is, but 39 will probably fall outside," Chang
Fong said.
Numerous
local enterprises and businessmen have also expressed
interest in investing in the lucrative power generation
company.
UTC
executive director Michael Alexander added: "Had
we not been launching the energy fund, we still
would have had an interest in it. The launching
of the energy fund is another opportunity to look
at that and in any case energy related investments
are downstream, upstream, greenfield, across the
board anything that speaks to energy."
Chang
Fong and her UTC team of executives maintained that
the energy fund is an avenue that both ordinary
citizens and comprehensive investor types could
access a piece of global energy wealth.
Questioned
as to whether the UTC still has an interest in the
Eastern Caribbean Gas Pipeline project (ECGP), Chang
Fong was also forthcoming.
"In
our point of view, if all the targets are met, in
terms of the approvals from proposed participating
countries, we feel that the Eastern Caribbean Gas
Pipeline could be a viable project.
"I
think the issue that was raised earlier this year
had to do with the exposure of various funds of
the UTC to the ECGP.
"As
far as the project goes, the Barbados authorities
have not yet given approval for several things that
need to be dealt with like the importation of gas,
the seabed survey."
For
the first two-weeks of its issue, shares of UTC's
energy fund will be sold at US$20 each.
Trinidad
Express
Thursday, November 30th 2006
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©2006 Trinidad Express. All Rights Reserved.
