AES is planning to boost its position in the Turkish electricity market by pursuing business opportunities with one of the country’s largest industrial conglomerates.
The US power company has signed an agreement with Koç Holding to form a joint venture company, AES-Entek.
The joint venture firm will own 300 MW of natural gas facilities in Turkey and intends to diversify into other energy sources by developing greenfield projects and pursuing acquisition and privatisation opportunities.
The move will enable AES to increase its presence in Turkey’s electricity sector, which is growing rapidly in line with the country’s expanding economy.
“We are forming a foreign partnership to bring expertise and capital to an extremely important sector for Turkey,” commented Mustafa V. Koç, Chairman of Koç Holding, which operates in a range of sectors including energy, finance, IT and tourism. “This partnership demonstrates a collective trust in the Turkish economy and its people, and both companies are well capitalized to take advantage of growth opportunities.”
Paul Hanrahan, President and chief executive officer of AES, stated, “We value Koç Holding’s extensive knowledge of the Turkish market and see enormous opportunity to develop and modernize electricity generation projects that will deliver a compelling return on investment.
“In so doing, we see the potential to strengthen Turkey’s role as a regional leader in the power sector, building upon its geographically strategic position.”
Turkey’s government is planning to privatise around 15 GW of power generating assets. Both Koç and AES also hope to take advantage of the country’s regional position as an energy corridor for Europe, the Middle East and Russia by collaborating on projects throughout the region.
Their aim is for AES-Entek to become one of Turkey’s five largest independent power producers by 2015. Turkey’s operating capacity of 46 GW is expected to grow by 30 per cent by 2015, according to AES.
