The Africa Finance Corporation and
Harith General Partners, a pan-African fund manager, have merged their
power sector assets, expertise and experience to create a new energy
entity combining both renewable and non-renewable power generating
assets in Africa.
They said in a statement on Wednesday
that the joint venture’s near term portfolio supplied reliable energy to
over 30 million people in at least 10 African countries and had a
combined gross operational and under-construction capacity of 1,575
megawatts.
According to the statement, the joint
venture will merge the AFC’s interests in Cenpower, owner of the Kpone
Independent Power Project under construction in Ghana, and Cabeolica, a
wind farm that provides 20 per cent of Cape Verde’s energy needs, with
those of the Pan Africa Infrastructure Development Fund which is managed
by Harith.
Harith’s
interests include the Azura Edo IPP in Nigeria, the Lake Turkana Wind
Power in Kenya, Kelvin Power Station in South Africa and the Rabai
Thermal project in Kenya.
“Collectively, this portfolio represents some of the largest projects in Africa’s energy sector,” the statement said.
It said the new venture would be in a
position to develop and finance projects through corporate finance
transactions and project finance, significantly reducing the lead time
to bringing power projects to fruition.
It will also have the benefit of a team
of dedicated advisers that bring a wealth of development and operational
experience in the African power sector.
The President and Chief Executive
Officer, AFC, Andrew Alli, said, “We are delighted to be announcing this
partnership with Harith. Our new joint venture will make an invaluable
contribution to improving generation capacity in countries across the
length and breadth of Africa and by working together we can deliver
tangible benefit for Africans, switching their lights on and stimulating
positive economic growth on the continent.
“Power is one of AFC’s priority sectors
and we dedicate considerable time and resources to driving development
here. Our total investments in energy amount to over $350m and we were
the first private sector institution to hit our target under President
Obama’s Power Africa initiative, with total direct investments of $269m
and $1.2bn of mobilised third party investments.”
The Chief Executive Officer, Harith and
Chairman of Aldwych, Tshepo Mahloele, said the purpose of the proposed
merger was to combine the assets of Aldwych and AFC so as to create an
African power entity that would have substantial capital, sector
specific experience, a critical mass of existing assets and a pipeline
of credible power projects.
“This will enable the joint venture to
expeditiously develop quality, cost reflective yet profitable power
projects that will benefit Africans – both power users and investors
alike.
“The timing could not have been better
as the power sector in Africa presents very attractive investment
opportunities and the growth in this sector is expected to continue
exponentially. Needless to say, the positive developmental impact of
electricity to our communities will be enormous and welcomed.”
According to the statement, as a result
of this merger, some of the largest and best structured renewable and
conventional electricity projects in Africa during the last decade will
now be held within one consolidated joint venture, alongside the
requisite development experience, pipeline, expertise and equity capital
for similar future projects.
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