KL timber tycoon wins Bakun dam deal

KL timber tycoon wins Bakun dam deal

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Malaysian tycoon Ting Pek Khiing's Ekran Bhd. said yesterday said it had won a deal to implement the much- criticized US$6 billion Bakun dam project in eastern Sarawak state.

Ting, executive chairman of the property and timber-based Ekran. and a close ally of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, said he obtained a letter of intent from the Economic Planning Unit on Thursday to proceed with the project.

"The expected annual revenue once the project is in full commercial operation in 2002 will be around 2.5 billion ringgit ($1 billion) to three billion ringgit," Ting said.

It works out to about eight million ringgit a day, he said.

Officials said 80 percent of the cost of the project, amounting to 12 billion ringgit, would be borrowed locally, with the rest coming from shareholders' equity-funds.

Ekran, through wholly-owned subsidiary Bakun Management Sdn. Bhd., will mobilize its team to participate in the tender for the overall project to be called later this month.

Detailed design works and the issue of tender documents would be ready by May 1995, with dam construction to begin by 1996.

The dam project has met with strong opposition from environmentalists, who say it will destroy the local ecology.

Ting said the requirements of the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) would be adhered to.

Construction of the dam is expected to commence in January next year or earlier, Ting said. It is expected to generate 2,400 megawatts of electricity.

Trading in Ekran shares was suspended on the local bourse on Jan. 27, when it was traded at 6.85 ringgit.