Marubeni-GDF Suez Led Group Wins Bid for Temasek's Senoko Power

By Dinakar Sethuraman and Tara Patel

Sept. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Temasek Holdings Pte, Singapore's government-owned investment company, said a group led by Marubeni Corp won an auction to buy the island-state's Senoko Power Ltd. for S$3.65 billion ($2.54 billion) in cash.

The group includes GDF Suez, Kansai Electric Power Co., Kyushu Electric Power Co. and Japan Bank of International Cooperation, Temasek said in an e-mail statement today. In addition, Lion Power, the Marubeni venture, will take up S$323 million of Senoko's debt as of March 31, 2008, the Singapore company said.

The pool of funds for mergers and acquisitions has shrunk after the collapse of the U.S. subprime mortgage market, making it harder for companies such as Temasek to sell assets. Transactions in Asia's power industry totaled $16.5 billion so far this year, a fifth of 2007, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News.

``Singapore represents a significant development potential for GDF Suez and will enable the group to strengthen its foothold in Southeast Asia,'' Dirk Beeuwsaert, head of the GDF Suez Energy International unit, said today in an e-mailed statement.

To speed up the sale of Senoko Power, Temasek had arranged financing for the five short-listed bidders, comprising a venture between CLP Holdings Ltd. and Mitsubishi Corp., Keppel Corp., Tata Power Co., YTL Corp. and the Marubeni group.

Selling the city-state's largest utility will further open the Singapore electricity industry to competition after the disposal of Tuas Power earlier this year. The sale of Senoko Power, as well as a third generator Power Seraya Ltd., will be completed by the end of 2009, Temasek said in July.

Temasek, which bought stakes in companies such as Merrill Lynch & Co. after banks wrote down $500 billion of investments tied to the U.S. subprime mortgages, may use the funds to acquire assets at good value.

To contact the reporter on this story: Dinakar Sethuraman in Singapore at dinakar@bloomberg.net; Tara Patel in Paris at Tpatel2@bloomberg.net