China Holdings buys Chalinhe plant

China Holdings has bought the 72MW Chalinhe hydro plant on the Lishui river in Hunan province, China, through the purchase of Hunan Zhangjiajie Chalinhe Electric Power Co.

Financing and terms of the acquisition were not immediately disclosed. The purchase was made via China Holdings' subsidiary China Power, and Hunan Zhangjiajie Chalinhe Electric Power Co wholly-owned the hydro plant.

The Chalinhe plant will have four 18MW units fed by a reservoir impounded behind a 95m high dam. By the end of this year the first stage of the plant should be completed, which will provide 54MW of installed power capacity.

China Holdings said it anticipated that current annual revenues from the first phase should be approximately US$12M and net income was expected to be about US$11M. The plant has full legal approved rights for credits under the Clean development Mechanism (CDM) for both the first phase and the planned additional 18MW capacity.

In May, China Holdings announced its plan to build an investment portfolio in hydro in China and internationally over the next one to four years via China Power. The company invests in a number of industrial sectors.