SET-listed B.Grimm Power Plc, the power generation arm of B.Grimm Group, has completed its purchase of Yanhee Solar Power Co, with contracted capacity of 59.7 megawatts.
Yesterday B.Grimm submitted a letter to the Stock Exchange of Thailand confirming its acquisition of another 51% stake of Yanhee Solar Power, scheduling the transaction for July 2 at a cost of 600 million baht.
Yanhee Solar Power, which began operations in Dec 2015, had sales and service revenue of 509 million baht last year and a net profit of 115 million.
President Preeyanart Soontornwata said its partner Yanhee Group plans to focus more on its hospitality business over the next five years, prompting B.Grimm to buy the remaining shares.
"We expect the solar rooftop programme in Thailand to continue to be popular with businesses, even though there is no new policy to promote renewable power plants here over the next five years," said Mrs Preeyanart.
B.Grimm also acquired the remaining 49% share in seven solar power companies from ISP Capital Co at a cost of 515 million baht. B.Grimm already owned a 51% stake in the seven companies, which have a 25-year power purchase agreement for solar power plants, with total capacity of 30.83MW and commercial operations scheduled to start by December.
Mrs Preeyanart said B.Grimm is committed to further expanding its renewable projects in Vietnam after it was granted a development licence for a 420MW solar power farm from the government in Tay Ninh in southwestern Vietnam. Construction of that project is expected to start soon.
Operations at the Tay Ninh project, which will be Asean's largest solar power farm, are expected to start in June, with a feed-in tariff rate of 9.35 US cents per kilowatt-hour.
B.Grimm is also teaming up with local firms and state utilities in Vietnam to develop wind and solar power farms with combined capacity of 200MW.
The company runs three business units, covering gas-fired power plants, renewable energy power plants and transmission and distribution systems.
Both types of power plants are under a small power producer scheme.
B.Grimm runs 31 power plants with a combined capacity of 1,779MW. The company aims to operate 41 power plants this year, expanding capacity to 2,091MW. The company is targeting capacity of 2,583MW from 50 power plants by 2020.
For the firm's overseas outlook, B.Grimm signed a power development agreement with the Laotian government to develop the Xe Kong Hydro Power Plant, which will have capacity of 340MW and a development cost of $835 million (926.8 billion baht).
For that project, B.Grimm owns a 20% stake, with SET-listed Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding Plc, holding 60% and Lao World Engineering and Construction Co controlling the rest.
B.Grimm also has the ambitious goal of raising capacity to 5,000MW by 2022, with renewable power plants to represent 30%, up from 12% now.
The company is aiming to have a total of 53 projects with 2,938MW in capacity by 2022, and is seeking another 2,000MW in additional projects.
The new projects are going to be in South Korea, Laos, Vietnam and Thailand, said Mrs Preeyanart.
In Korea, the company is conducting due diligence to develop an off-shore wind power farm with Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO), a state-owned power utility, with total capacity of 100MW.
B.Grimm expects to own a 55% stake, with the remaining 45% going to KEPCO, once both parties have completed the agreement.
The company is also targeting projects at home, although energy policymakers have suspended a plan to purchase power from renewables over the next five years.
But B.Grimm sees opportunities to develop solar rooftop projects with combined capacity of 70MW nationwide.
The company expects to finalise the domestic plan this year, including a solar rooftop project to install and develop an installation for Thailand's largest retailer business operator, but B.Grimm declined to disclose the company's name.