$ 227-M power-plant payment deadline extended
Saturday, April 01, 2006
MANILA (Reuters) - A Philippine state agency said on Saturday it had granted a consortium buying a power plant a three-month extension to make a payment of $ 227 million, which was due on Friday, as a Malaysian firm was joining the group.
Engineering and power firm Ranhill Bhd. was joining the YNN-Pacific Consortium Inc, which successfully bid $ 561.7 million in December 2004 for the 600-megawatt Masinloc coal-fired plant, the president of the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp (PSALM) said.
Ranhill had hired Dutch bank ABN AMRO NV to help it borrow $ 350 million to partly cover its investment, PSALM president Nieves Osorio told a news conference.
The Philippine-Australian consortium was meant to have made an upfront payment of $ 227 million to the government on Friday for the Masinloc plant in Zambales province in northern Philippines.
''PSALM expects Ranhill and YNN to complete within the three month extension all financial arrangements related to Ranhill's investments in YNN,'' Osorio said of the revised June 30 deadline.
The agency required the consortium to increase its performance bond to $ 14 million from $ 11 million as a guarantee that it would not renege on its commitment to pay $ 227 million by June 30, and later on the balance of $ 334.7 million.
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The Malaysian firm is also in talks with the private sector operations department of the Asian Development Bank for project financing and possible equity investment, she added.
posted by philpower @ 5:41 PM,
