Transcorp Eyes Coal to Power Business

ABUJA- Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc (Transcorp) says it has entered into talks with some Canadian and Australian firms to begin investments in coal to power business and is hopeful to make progress on this project in coming months.

 

The company is also already in the final stages of securing approval to commence the oil drilling programme, Tony Elumelu, chairman, said at the company’s 9th annual general meeting (AGM) where about N2 billion dividend, translating to 6 kobo per share was cleared for investors.

Transcorp is a major investor in oil and gas, agriculture, power as well as hospitality and currently owns Ughelli Power Plant, oil block 28, Nigeria’s Transcorp Hotels and also Teragro, its agribusiness subsidiary.

Elumelu said the company’s ambition to generate at least a quarter of Nigeria’s power consumption remains firmly on course as they continue to consolidate on the gains made at the Ughelli Power Plant.

The plant’s rehabilitation programme saw power output increase from 342 megawatts on December 31, 2013 to 610 megawatts by December 31, 2014.
The target is to raise output to 850 megawatts end of this year.

Full year profitability of the Ughelli Power Plant accounting for 65 percent of total gross earnings pushed up the Group’s gross earnings in 2014 significantly by 120 percent to N41.3 billion from N18.8 billion in 2013.

“The revenue growth was achieved following substantial increase in available capacity at our power plant to 610MW in December 2014,” said Elumelu.

“The company’s gross earnings also increased 196 percent from N2.1 billion to N6.3 billion largely due to dividend income realised from the power business.”