HCM City based company seeks solar venture capital
VOV.VN - A Ho Chi Minh based company that has minimal experience in setting up power projects on any scale let alone a mega scale is seeking investors for a US$1 billion solar power venture.
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We are looking for equity capital to fund construction of 10-20 solar parks that we have on the drawing board, said Thai Van Chuyen, CEO of the TTC Group, a company whose experience lies mainly in the sugar and real estate segments.
We believe we’ll be able to raise 30% of the necessary capital internally over coming years but will need stakeholders to provide external equity or other long-term debt financing for the balance.
Mr Chuyen said that TTC Group is currently in the preliminary stages of talks with several financial institutions and exploring a few alternative arrangements to raise the needed venture capital to get the business off the ground.
He noted that green energy technologies such as solar and wind power are receiving a lot of attention because of incentives provided to producers by the government in recent pricing legislation.
Due primarily to companies such as Samsung and LG Electronics relocating their factories from China to Vietnam the economy is expanding and so are the power needs. The country is facing a power shortage to meet these needs.
Currently, he said, the country relies almost entirely on hydropower and there is much doubt by leading environmentalists, economists and politicians about whether that can or should continue in the future due to the pollution problems it creates.
Some experts predict, that the demand for power could increase twofold by 2025 and—though these predictions are highly speculative by nature—there is little doubt that the demand for energy will continue to rise.
The Vietnam government has laid out a strategy to increase the country’s power capacity by as much as 14% annually through 2030, said Mr Chuyen, noting that TTC Group plans to eventually develop the capacity to provide a good portion of that power.
According to our internal projections TTC Group has the potential to produce 800 megawatts of power per year utilizing principally solar but other green technologies as well.
Mr Chuyen wasn’t clear on many of the specifics but said the TTC Group proposed venture has been receiving a great deal of attention, without elaborating. He also talked about the possibility of a solar project in Singapore.
