The world’s largest listed hydropower generator by capacity plans to buy two major power plants in China.
China Yangtze Power, in a filing to the Shanghai Stock Exchange, said it would buy Three Gorges Jinshajiang Yunchuan Hydropower, the company that owns the Wudongde and Baihetan power plants, for 80.5 billion yuan ($12 billion).
The company’s shares rose more than 5% in morning trading on Friday.
With the deal, China Yangtze Power, which already runs the world’s largest power station by capacity, the Three Gorges Dam, will be acquiring the second and fourth-largest hydropower stations in China by capacity.
The deal comes as China experiences a sustained energy crisis.
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The company said this would lift its total installed capacity to 71.8 million kilowatts from 45.6 million kilowatts, an increase of 57%.
The power plants deal was announced in December, but the value of the transaction, one of the largest in China’s hydropower sector in recent years, was only revealed on Thursday.
Trading in shares of China Yangtze Power was suspended in December so that controlling shareholder China Three Gorges Corporation, could draw up a plan to transfer the Wudongde and Baihetan stations.
China Yangtze Power said on Thursday it would pay for the power plants with cash and by issuing shares. Up to 16.1 billion yuan ($2.4 billion) will be raised through private placement, the company added.
- Reuters, with additional editing by George Russell
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