Lao energy investor's revenue surge

Aug 13th at 15:30

13-08-2014 15:30:36+07:00

The state-owned Lao Holding State Enterprise (LHSE), a major energy developer, earned more than 70 billion kip (US$ 8.77 million) in the first six months of this year, with expenditure amounting to around 50 billion kip (US$ 6,28 million).

“LHSE's earnings came from the Nam Theun 2 Power Company Limited (NTPC), Hongsa Power Company (HPC), personal service agreements and the interest earned on deposits,” General Manager of the enterprise Dr Somboune Manolom reported yesterday.

Speaking at the enterprise's biannual meeting in Vientiane to review operations over the past months, Dr Somboune said the total earnings also included dividends amounting to around 65.4 billion kip (US$8.12 million) from NTPC, which was about 6.4 percent over the target.

Other revenues were sourced from a personal service agreement with NTPC worth over 401 million kip, a personal service agreement with HPC worth more than 400 million kip, as well as interest on deposits amounting to almost 4 billion kip.

Dr Somboune said expenditure amounted to about 50.2 billion kip (US$ 6.28 million), which was only 46.7 percent of the annual plan.

Expenditure included over 6.8 billion kip for management costs and a new investment project, while the acquisition of assets was over 603 million kip.

The enterprise also made payments in regard to debts, loans and taxes to the Ministry of Finance worth over 50.4 b illion kip, which was 79.5 percent of the budgeted amount of almost 63.4 billion kip.

The enterprise made payments in regard to debts, loans and taxes to the Ministry of Finance worth over 42.8 billion kip (US$5.35 million), which was about 63.4 percent of the plan.

Over 42.81 billion kip was included in the payment of more than 5.5 billion kip for loan capital, more than 13.5 billion kip (US$1.69 million) for interest and over 23.7 billion kip (US$2.96 million) for taxes.

LHSE was created by the Lao government to facilitate investment in energy generation. It has followed a path of rapid growth in the power sector during the nine years it has been in operation.

The enterprise is now a shareholder in four power plant projects that have a total installed capacity of 3,658 megawatts (MW) and have the investment cost of around 55.97 trillion kip (US$6.996 billion), including US$539.86 million of investment made by LHSE.

The Nam Theun 2 (NT2) has an installed capacity of 1,080MW with the investment amounting to US$1,297 million, while Xe Pian-Xe Nam Noi has 410MW with the cost of investment being US$1,020 million.

Meanwhile Nam Ngiep 1 has a capacity of 290MW with the cost of investment valued at US$969 million and Hongsa Mine-Mouth Power Project has a capacity of 1,878MW with investment valued at US$3.710billion.

LHSE holds 25 percent of NT2's investment value, 24 percent in Xe Pian-Xe Nam Noi, 25 percent in Nam Ngiep 1 and 20 percent in Hongsa Mine-Mouth Power Project.

vientiane times