Abraaj acquires Pakistan wind power company

Financial details were not disclosed. The investment is expected to benefit from a long-term power purchase agreement with Pakistan's Central Power Purchasing Agency, a tariff indexed to the US dollar, and regulatory reforms facilitating foreign investment in clean energy.

"With a shortage of over 6,000 megawatts and rising power consumption in Pakistan today, we are excited by the sheer size of the clean energy infrastructure opportunity, enabling government policies and the potential of the Jhimpir wind corridor," Sev Vettivetpillai, managing partner and global head of Abraaj's thematic fund business, said in a statement. 

Jhimpir owns a 50 MW wind power project in an established 550 MW wind corridor which has 1 gigawatts of additional capacity in the construction and development stage. Turbines for the project are being provided by maintenance and operational support partner General Electric. It is scheduled to begin operations in the first quarter of 2018.

Energy is seen as particularly attractive in Pakistan's warming private equity climate due to chronic supply deficits in the power generation space and operational inconsistencies in distribution. Abraaj's experience in this space includes K-Electric, it exited last year to a Chinese operator for $1.8 billion after adding more than 1,000MW of capacity and building 12 new grid stations. 

Abraaj has also been active in the healthcare space, where it backed an expansion plan for Islamabad Diagnostics Centre earlier this month. In 2006, it invested in machined components manufacturer Mannan Shahid Forgings after setting up a sector-agnostic buyout fund for the country with BMA Capital.

The GP has received support from the US government via a number of investments under the USAID program, which separately launched a $60 million credit initiative last year for small to medium-sized local businesses. The firm has targeted private mid-caps in the country with the launch of a $200 million fund that has attracted interest from the International Finance Corporation.  

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Cleantech
• Infrastructure
• Buyouts
• Pakistan
• The Abraaj Group
• energy
• Growth capital