AES To Acquire $3 Billion Drax Power Facility in England; 3,960 MW Facility is Largest Coal-Fired Plant in Western Europe.ARLINGTON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 18, 1999-- The AES Corporation AES Corporation AES (NYSE) is a Fortune 1000 company that generates and distributes electrical power. It was founded on January 28, 1981 by Roger Sant from the US Federal Energy Administration and Dennis Bakke from the Office of Management and Budget. (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :AES) announced today that a subsidiary has reached agreement with National Power for the acquisition of the Drax Power Station Drax is a large coal-fired power station located near Selby in North Yorkshire in Northern England. for 1.875 billion pounds (approximately $3 billion). The Drax station is a 3,960MW coal fired power station complete with flue gas Flue gas is gas that exits to the atmosphere via a flue, which is a pipe or channel for conveying exhaust gases from a fireplace, oven, furnace, boiler or steam generator. Quite often, it refers to the combustion exhaust gas produced at power plants. desulphurisation located on an 1800 acre site in northern England Northern England, The North or North of England is a rather ill-defined term, with no universally accepted definition. Its extent may be subject to personal opinion and many companies or organisations have differing definitions as to what it constitutes. . It is the largest coal-fired plant in western Europe and generates approximately 8% of the electricity in England and Wales England and Wales are both constituent countries of the United Kingdom, that together share a single legal system: English law. Legislatively, England and Wales are treated as a single unit (see State (law)) for the conflict of laws. . Completion of the transaction is subject to a number of conditions, including the receipt of certain regulatory approvals and the approval of the shareholders of National Power. Closing is expected to occur later this year, and AES expects to fund this acquisition through a combination of non recourse project financing Project financing A form of asset-based financing in which a firm finances a discrete set of assets on a stand-alone basis. , corporate debt financing Debt Financing When a firm raises money for working capital or capital expenditures by selling bonds, bills, or notes to individual and/or institutional investors. In return for lending the money, the individuals or institutions become creditors and receive a promise to repay and corporate equity issuance. AES's subsidiary will acquire the shares of a newly formed company, National Power Drax Limited, into which the assets of the station have been transferred. In addition to the purchase of shares in National Power Drax Limited, the facility has entered into a coal contract with National Power for the supply of a portion of its coal requirements, a transitional Contract for Differences to cover a portion of the output of Drax for the period to March 2000 and a number of other short-term transitional technical and IT contracts related to the operation of Drax. Michael Armstrong, Group Manager, AES Electric, stated, "We are extremely pleased to have won this bid. Drax is the largest, cleanest, newest and most efficient large coal plant in England. Our company-wide Drax development team has done an exceptional job in structuring an innovative approach to this acquisition." Dennis W. Bakke, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, "We are excited about this major addition to our existing mix of generating assets. Our global experience with other clean coal-fired plants should allow us to enhance the operations of this facility. Furthermore, our forthcoming experience with Drax in the UK market should serve as a springboard to other acquisitions in Europe." AES is a leading global power company that currently owns or has an interest in one hundred and five power facilities totaling over 32,000 megawatts in the United States, Canada, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Panama, Mexico, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh the Netherlands, Hungary, Kazakhstan, China and the United Kingdom. AES also distributes electricity to nearly 14 million customers and is also a retail marketer of heat and electricity. In addition to having assets in excess of $10 billion, the Company has a significant number of projects in construction or development. AES is dedicated to providing electricity worldwide in a socially responsible way. For more general information visit our web site at www.aesc.com or contact investor relations Investor relations The process by which the corporation communicates with its investors. at investing@aesc.com. The list aes-pr-announce is an automated mailing list and can be found on the investing page of our web site. Those who subscribe to this list will receive updates when AES issues a press release. |
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