Hopewell income from RI

Hopewell income from RI

HONG KONG (Reuters): Hopewell Holdings Ltd chairman Gordon Wu said yesterday the company expected annual pre-tax income from its Tanjung Jati B project in Indonesia of about HK$2.1 billion once the power plant comes on stream in 2000.

The plant will provide 60 percent of Hopewell's annual future income, Wu told Reuters in an interview.

"I am confident that at some point in time we will be able to go ahead with C," Wu said, adding that he expected electricity demand to grow in Indonesia.

Indonesia said last month that it had canceled the US$1.77 billion Tanjung Jati C power project being built by a joint venture that includes a unit of Hopewell Holdings.

Tanjung Jati C is an extension of the B project which is under construction.

Wu said the Tanjung Jati B project, a coal-fired station in Central Java, would come fully on stream in October 2000 while the first unit would be operational in April in the same year.