A group comprising Kuwait Investment Authority and private equity firm CVC Capital Partners is among final bidders for Sithe Global Power LLC’s stake in a Philippine power plant that could fetch at least $500 million, people with knowledge of the matter said.
Rising demand for electricity in the Asia-Pacific region has been spurring mergers and acquisitions in the energy industry. Announced power and utility deals involving companies in the region totaled $72.4 billion this year, up 19 percent from the $60.6 billion announced in the same period in 2015, according to Bloomberg-compiled data.
Sithe Global and the Philippines’s Ayala Corp co-own the Mariveles plant as well as a stake of about 40 percent in Dinginin power station, a 1,300-megawatt facility that’s being built.
Representatives for KIA and Malakoff didn’t immediately respond to e-mailed requests for comment, while Blackstone, Macquarie Group, CVC and GIC declined to comment in e-mailed responses to Bloomberg queries. “I cannot comment at this time,” Aboitiz Power Executive Vice President Miguel Aboitiz said in a mobile-phone text message.
KIA, one of the world’s oldest sovereign wealth funds, is targeting global infrastructure projects after taking part in a consortium that bought the London City Airport this year, Chairman Anas Al-Saleh said in May. CVC Capital, whose holdings include a stake in Formula One, agreed to take bereavement care provider Nirvana Asia Ltd. private in July.