It was just weeks ago when parent company China Huaneng Group won a tender to buy Singapore's Tuas Power with a S$4.23 billion (HK$23.82 billion) bid. China Huaneng handed over full payment to the vendor, Singapore's sovereign investment house Temasek Holdings, on Monday last week.
Less than 24 hours after the transaction was completed, Huaneng Power International (HPI) - the nation's largest listed power producer by capacity - announced that it had signed a letter of intent to take over the entire Singapore utility from the parent company, marking its first foray overseas.
The apparent swiftness of the act has caught some market watchers by surprise. Rarely does a state-owned entity make such quick decisions on a major investment - unless it is planned or premeditated.
But reading between the lines of the company's financial results for last year, one should not be surprised.
The move underscores a desperate need for mainland power producers to diversify from the domestic power market, where price controls are putting a cap on earnings growth.
Apparently endorsing the leader's overseas move, rival Datang International Power Generation's chairman Zhai Ruoyu said on Thursday that his company - the largest power producer for the Beijing-Tianjin-Datang area - also is scouting for assets globally, especially in Southeast Asia.