Lucky Cement is making plans to invest US$200 million in a coal-fired power plant in Karachi, according to reports. The 660 MW plant would be set up through the company’s subsidiary, Lucky Holdings Limited. The proposal will go before shareholders at the AGM, scheduled for September. The board is recommending the approval of the US$200 million investment to be set up by a new entity under the name of Lucky Electric Power Company Limited, of which Lucky Cement would own a 75% stake through Lucky Holdings and has agreed to maintain at least a 20% indirect stake to the sixth anniversary of the commercial operations date. The project would be financed through a debt:equity ratio of 75:25 and is estimated to bear a total cost of US$1.08 billion.
Lucky Cement has further decided to increase its shareholding in Yunus Energy, which is developing a 50 MW wind farm – a project that is likely to be completed by December 2015.
Lucky Cement is Pakistan’s leading cement producer, with a production capacity of 7.75 million tpa. In April we reported that Lucky Cement had achieved a 17.2% increase in profit after tax in the first nine months of the current fiscal year and a 7.7% increase in local sales volumes.
Edited from various sources by Katherine Guenioui