Qatar's QEWC to buy 23% of Jordanian power plant

A Reuters report says QEWC will take a 23% stake in Jordan's East Amman power plant.

Newswire Reuters reported over the weekend that Qatar Electricity & Water Company has agreed to buy a 23.3% stake in Jordan's Amman East power plant from a Bahraini infrastructure fund in a move by the state owned Qatari firm to expand its international footprint.

QEWC bought the stake from IDB Infrastructure Fund, a $730 million private equity fund established in 2001 and managed by EMP Bahrain a subsidiary of EMP Global. The IDB Fund's mandate is to make investments in infrastructure projects in Islamic countries.

According to the Reuters reports, as part of the deal, QEWC will buy IDB's 38.9% interest in AES Oasis Limited the 60% owner of the holding company for AES Jordan. AES Jordan PSC, a subsidiary of AES Corporation and Japan's Mitsui & Company is the operator of the Amman East plant.

No deal value was disclosed for the transaction, which is expected to close in the Q1 of 2012. The Amman East power plant has an installed capacity of 370 MW.

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The IDB Fund has previously invested in twelve entities covering companies operating in airlines, airports, petrochemicals, toll roads, telecommunication and power generation sectors. The Fund currently holds a stake in several publicly traded companies including APC in Saudi Arabia and TAV in Turkey.

In its most recently available public financial announcement QEWC announced a net profit of around $185 million for the first half of 2011, up from against $129 million for the same period in 2010, representing growth of 43 percent.