Marcella Scarlett, Business Report
Sterling Asset Management Limited has been tapped to arrange US$50 million of financing for joint-venture partners Azurest Partners LLC and Cambridge Project Development Inc, if the companies emerge as the preferred bidder for the LNG-compatible plant, the local investment firm has confirmed.
Azurest-Cambridge is one of five bidders short-listed to bid on the project to develop and operate the power plant to supply the national grid.
The Office of the Utilities Regulation (OUR) announced new timelines for the project on Wednesday for construction of the plant to begin at the end of November and for it to be commissioned two years later in December 2015.
The other four short-listed bids as named by the OUR are Armorview Holdings Limited; Energy World International Limited; Jamaica Public Service Company Limited; and Optimal Energy.
The financing to be arranged by Sterling represents just seven per cent of the plant’s development cost.
Sterling’s vice-president of sales and marketing, Kevin Richards, said the Azurest-Cambridge investment is estimated at US$698 million, including working capital, reserves, capital expenditure, and associated project fees.
The targeted financing mix is 70 per cent debt and 30 per cent equity, with most of the funding to be raised outside of the Caribbean region, said Richards, referring to the entire US$698m project cost.
Sterling says it plans to target local institutional investors for the funds to be raised on behalf of Azurest-Cambridge.
“In the past, there have been a number of acquisitions or new investments by foreigners that did not have any local capital market participation, and we feel that a deal such as this would allow medium- to long-term investors more than sufficient return on investment relative to current market offerings,” Richards said.
Azurest-Cambridge has proposed a 388MW capacity power plant to be mounted on sea barges. The OUR tender is for 360MW.
The partners plan to leverage Azurest’s relationships with major US energy players and financial-services firms “gain easy access to the world’s cheapest supply of LNG,” the partners said in their project summary acquired by