KUCHING: State-owned Sarawak Energy Bhd (SEB) has completed its RM2.5 billion ringgit acquisition of the Bakun Hydroelectric Plant (HEP), the largest hydropower plant in the country, today.
SEB, in a statement, said the company has completed the share purchase of Sarawak Hidro Sdn Bhd (SHSB), which is the owner of the plant, and close-out items detailed in the Share Sale Agreement (SSA).
Following the completion of SSA, SEB via its subsidiary, SEB Power Sdn Bhd, have acquired 100 per cent shares in SHSB from the Finance Ministry and Federal Lands Commission.
“The Finance Ministry will maintain the current Letter of Undertaking and Government Guarantee on SHSB’s existing debts,” said the statement, adding that completion of the SSA was completed at SHSB’s office in Petaling Jaya.
SEB group chief executive officer Sharbini Suhaili said the acquisition of the 2,400MW dam will enable the company to have full ownership and operator-ship of all major electricity facilities in the state.
“We are grateful to Chief Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Abang Openg and the state government for their continuing trust for SEB to consolidate Sarawak’s energy resources,” Sharbini said in the statement.
Abang Johari had expressed the state government’s interest in purchasing the plant, which would give Sarawak greater flexibility in optimising the management and operation of electricity supply, in March this year.
He had said that the takeover will include the land surrounding the dam and reservoir area from Federal Land Commission.
The Bakun dam was completed in 2010 and partly commissioned in the following year before being fully commissioned in July 2014.
Sarawak also has the 944MW Murum Dam and the 100MW Batang Ai Dam apart from the Bakun Dam.