Tokyo Electric-Marubeni wins bidding for Mirant

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said in Tokyo yesterday that it and its joint venture partner, Marubeni Corp., one of Japan’s biggest trading houses, had won the bidding for US-based Mirant Corp.’s power plants in the Philippines.

TEPCO spokesman Katsuya Uchino said both companies would issue a news release and hold briefings shortly with more details.

The Japanese consortium will purchase two coal-fired plants and a natural gas-fired generator, Marubeni said in Tokyo yesterday. The price includes debt and equity.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Marubeni beat rival groups led by Japanese trading company Mitsubishi Corp., Korea Electric Power Corp. the UK’s International Power and AES Corp., a US-based power producer according to five people involved in the sale who declined to be identified.

The Tokyo Electric-Marubeni consortium raised its joint bid for the power plants of Mirant Corp. in the Philippines to $3.4 billion from $2.85 billion, prompting Mitsubishi Corp.’s One Energy Group to drop

its offer as The STAR reported yesterday.

The sale may help appease Mirant shareholders who have been

demanding the company buy back stock or pay

dividends. Mirant’s plants have contracts with the Philippine

government to supply power for about 20 years.

Credit Suisse Group is advising Mirant on the disposal.

Godwin Chellam, a Hong Kong-based spokesman for the Swiss bank,

declined to comment.

Atlanta-based Mirant is selling assets after emerging from bankruptcy in January. It’s three plants in the Philippines have a combined capacity of 2,203 megawatts, making the company the second-biggest power producer in the Philippines after the government.

Mirant scrapped an unsolicited $7.86 billion bid for RG

Energy Inc. in June after a shareholder revolt, and started a

$1.25 billion share repurchase and auction of assets in the

Philippines and the Caribbean, the company said in July. – Donna Gatdula