Dh15bn new Dewa contracts this year

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) has earmarked Dh15 billion for new contracts this year, as it seeks to increase its capacity by 30 per cent in the next two years.

About 20 per cent of this budget has already been awarded and will be announced next week. This includes six contracts for substations, cable laying and transmission lines with Areva ABB, RWA, Siemens, Riyadh Cables, Ducab and Ghantoot Contracting Company worth Dh3.3bn.

"This is only a small part of what we are going to award," Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, Dewa Managing Director and CEO, told Emirates Business.

"This [Dh3.3bn] only assumes 15 to 25 per cent of the total contracts to be awarded in the whole year," said ASA Hameed, Deputy Senior Manager for Contracts at Dewa.

Most of the bigger contracts will come from the Hassyan independent water and power project, whose developer will be selected between December 2010 and March 2011. Commissioning of the first unit is slated for 2014.

The utility firm is also on track for launching $1bn (Dh3.67bn) to $1.5bn bond next month regardless of market conditions. It is positive that an upgrade of its credit ratings will give the fund-raising favourable financial terms.

"Yes, we have already talked with credit rating agencies and I think there will be an announcement, maybe next month," Al Tayer said on the sidelines of Wetex press conference.

He said the utility firm will start the roadshow for the bond in Europe, Asia and the US on March 15. The funds, he said, will be used for repayments and to finance Dewa's projects.

"We are going because Dewa's performance is excellent. We hope that the market is good. [But] anytime we go, there will be a market for Dewa because of its market performance," he added.

Keep up with the latest business news from the region with the Emirates Business 24|7 daily newsletter. To subscribe to the newsletter, please click here.

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.