Ratch Group, Thailand's largest private power producer by capacity, plans additional mergers and acquisitions (M&A) for power generation assets in a bid to achieve capacity expansion to 10,000 megawatts by 2025.
The company is negotiating five deals with a combined capacity of 500-600MW, and expects to conclude the negotiations by early next year, said Kijja Sripatthangkura, Ratch's chief executive.
The M&A approach, when combined with other development projects and previously acquired assets, should increase the firm's total capacity to around 8,700MW, he said.
Ratch has 8,173MW in its power generation capacity portfolio, calculated as a proportion of Ratch shareholding in various energy businesses.
Targeted power plants under talks are mostly located overseas. They include Quang Tri 1 coal-fired power plant in Vietnam, two hydroelectric power plant projects, a wind farm project and a gas-fired plant.
The company did not elaborate where another four are located, saying only they are in Asean.
Despite air traffic restrictions worldwide due to the pandemic, Ratch is confident at least two deals should be closed by the end of this year.
The company allocated 15 billion baht in capital spending for next year to acquire the five new assets and support ongoing projects, including non-energy businesses.
During the first nine months this year, Ratch acquired five power generation assets, with combined capacity of 243MW, calculated as its shareholding proportion.
They include a 22% share in Thang Long thermal power plant and 51% share in Thanh Phong wind farm in Vietnam. The two have a combined capacity of 29.7MW and are scheduled to begin commercial operations in the fourth quarter of 2021.
The company also acquired a 49% share in 92MW NEXIF Energy Rayong power plant, which is scheduled to start operation in the second quarter of 2022, and a 40% share in 40MW REN power plant in Nakhon Ratchasima, set to begin commercial operation in 2023.
A wholly owned gas-fired power plant unit in Pathum Thani, Ratch Cogeneration, is expanding capacity by 30MW, and is due to be ready for operations in the third quarter of 2022.
For non-energy development projects, Mr Kijja said Ratch has invested a 10% equity share in a consortium hired by the government for the operation and maintenance of Bang Pa in-Nakhon Ratchasima (M6) and Bang Yai-Kanchanaburi (M81) intercity motorway projects.
The consortium is expected to sign a concession contract in December.
Ratch also formed a joint venture in a wood pallet manufacturing business, with capacity of 60,000 tonnes per year, in Laos.