Three Gorges and EDP to pour US$2b into Africa
Investments will mostly involve dam projects as partners seek to expand beyond home markets
China Three Gorges and Energias de Portugal (EDP) plan to jointly invest US$2 billion in Africa by 2020.
Both companies would equally share the investment, which would mostly be in dams that Three Gorges would help build, the Portuguese utility firm's board member Joao Marques da Cruz said at the Africa Investment Summit in Hong Kong this week.
"We are facing a partnership between China, Europe and Africa. The primary destination of our common investment is Africa," said da Cruz.
The Portuguese government sold 21.35 per cent of EDP to Three Gorges for €2.69 billion (HK$28 billion) in May last year, making the Chinese firm the largest shareholder in the formerly state-owned company.
[Three Gorges] wants to marry a partner with international experience
This was the largest privatisation in Portuguese history and one of the biggest mergers and acquisitions in Europe last year, said Joao Soares da Silva, a managing partner of Morais Leitao, Galvao Teles, Soares da Silva & Associados, a Portuguese law firm that represented EDP in the deal.
The Portuguese government sold the stake to Three Gorges as part of the European Union's conditions to resolve the country's debt problem, said Adam Cheng, counsel of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, a US law firm that acted for the Chinese state-owned company.