Malaysia’s energy company Tenaga plans to invest $4.5 billion a year to speed the country’s energy transition.

Domestic adoption of electric vehicles (EV) will also benefit from projects to be funded by Tenaga over the next three years, for which the company anticipates earning 1.25 billion ringgit annually by 2030, for a total of 500,000 EVs.

Malaysian utility Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB)  said on Wednesday that it aims to invest about 20 billion ringgit ($4.48 billion) annually until 2050 to speed up its energy transition plans.

Baharin Din, Tenaga’s president and chief executive officer, said in a statement that the investments would help the company reach net zero emissions by 2050 and ‘open up possibilities for more than doubling its pre-tax earnings’ (244).

By 2050, Tenaga hopes to capture a larger portion of the Malaysian clean energy market, which Khazanah Nasional, its largest shareholder, estimates to be worth between 65 billion ringgit and 80 billion ringgit.

Tenaga intends for its power generation subsidiary, TNB Genco, to account for 40 billion ringgit.

Reuters last week said that Tenaga was planning to begin the process next year for a potential $1 billion IPO of the company, citing sources familiar with the situation. “There are various other factors that TNB needs to consider to decide on the IPO,” Tenaga said in a statement to Reuters. “At the moment we are focused on improving operational performance and delivering on our Nenggiri hydroelectric plant.”

TNB Genco’s IPO should require between two and three years of preparation, according to Tenaga. Beforehand, analysts predicted that TNB Genco would be listed in two to three years.

The firm said that in the next five years, TNB Genco aims to earn 2.5 billion ringgit in 2020, 3.4 billion ringgit in 2021, and 3.95 billion ringgit in 2022, among other indicators. Last year, the unit generated 2.4 billion ringgit in earnings, the firm said.

Baharin noted that Tenaga is looking into gas and hydropower projects in Southeast Asia, with a goal of 800 megawatts by 2050.

Its new energy division will expand its renewable portfolio by targeting capacity of 14.3 gigawatts by 2050, Baharin said, with an equity investment of $7 billion.

Domestic adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) will be spurred by investments of 90 million ringgit over the next three years, Mr. Raja said, adding that the company aims to have 500,000 EVs on the road by 2030, resulting in annual EV revenue of 1.25 billion ringgit.

 

Picture by Saw Siow Feng