Jamaica Energy Partners' Dr. Bird II power barge docked at Old Harbour, St. Catherine. The company has been sold to an energy company based in the Dominican Republic. - File
Conduit Capital Partners LLC, a New York-based private- equity fund invested in regional power generation, has sold off its Jamaican assets for US$92.5 million to a Dominican Republic entity.
The buyer of Jamaica Energy Partners (JEP) was said to be Basic Energy, which is a project of Santo Domingo's CEPM Energy Limited and Endesa of Spain.
The sale of JEP, which is run by Wayne McKenzie, is not expected to change the arrangement with Japanese-owned Jamaica Public Service Company Limited (JPS) which buys its output.
"It will not affect the contract," JPS spokeswoman Winsome Callum told Wednesday Business.
In fact, the 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA), which was initially carved out in 1995, was extended in 2006 by about 10 years, Callum said.
The latter deal was struck around the time that JEP was installing its second of two power barges to boost its installed capacity from 74 megawatts to 125 MW.
The independent power provider (IPP) operates two diesel-fired power generators, Dr. Bird I and II, mounted on power barges, making JEP the larger of two big private power-generating firms operational in Jamaica, both of which changed ownership this year.
Jamaica Private Power Company now belongs to Texan firm AEI, which finalised deals to take an 84.4 per cent control of the Rockfort, Kingston-based 63 MW capacity plant at the end of October.
The JEP deal was arranged by Paris based European bank, BNP Paribas, which also advised Conduit on the US$17.5 million sale of its Mamonal power generation facility in Colombia, and a binding agreement to sell its 13.2 per cent holding in natural gas-fired Aguaytia, one of its investments in Peru.
Conduit initially purchased the regional assets under its three Latin Power funds.
But once the Aguaytia sale closes, said Conduit chairman J. Scott Swensen, "Latin Power I will be fully liquidated."
The fund at establishment in 1993 had committed capital of US$100 million, a portion of which financed the purchase of a 35.6 per cent stake in JEP in 1994.
Conduit would eventually increase its position in JEP in 2000 financed by its Latin Power II fund which was launched in 1998 with capital of US$157 million.
Both funds have invested in a combined 18 projects and have "returned over two times the invested capital," according to Conduit - 4.4 times for the initial fund and 3.4 times for LPII.
The New York investment fund eventually took full control of the Jamaican IPP in 2006, financed from its newly created US$393 million Latin Power III fund.
"Jamaica is a strategic location for any company operating in the Caribbean, and we consider JEP to be the best run power plant on the island," said Juan Paez, a partner at Conduit, quoted in a company release.
Last night Conduit chairman Swensen told Wednesday Business he was not averse to further energy investments in Jamaica, saying his company had found the environment business friendly.
"The Office of Utility Regulation applied the regulations of Jamaica fairly and transparently, Jamaica Public Service Company paid its bills on time and our Jamaican management team performed superbly," said Swensen.
"We are very interested in finding additional opportunities to invest in the Jamaican energy sector."
lavern.clarke@gleanerjm.com
