Energy firm EDP is selling its stake in Macau’s power utility, CEM, to China Three Gorges (CTG), its biggest shareholder, becoming the most recent of Portugal’s major privately-owned groups to leave the former colony.
With CEM´s sale to CTG by EDP, Portugal´s major groups no longer have a presence in Macao. In April 2010 Seap, a consortium of TAP Air Portugal and Banco Nacional Ultramarino, sold its stake in Air Macau to Air China, where in the past it had a 20 percent stake,
In a statement issued in Lisbon on Friday, EDP that it has entered into a purchase and sale agreement (PSA) with China Three Gorges to sell its 50 percent share in Energia Asia Consultoria, Lda (“Energia Asia”), a company that owns 21.2 percent of the capital of Macau’s power utility monopoly CEM.
EDP developing 4.3 GW of renewables capacity in Europe, Americas and Asia
The “expected total consideration of around EUR 100 million” is “subject to adjustments until the transaction is completed”, EDP added.
The statement noted that “Energia Asia is a subsidiary owned 50 percent by EDP and 50 percent by ACE Asia Co. Ltd. whose only asset is the 21.2 percent stake in Companhia de Electricidade de Macau – CEM, S.A. (“CEM”), which has been the exclusive concessionaire for electricity transmission, distribution and commercialisation in Macau since 1985.”
“The transaction if fully aligned with EDP’s Business Plan, allowing the reallocation of its capital in its main activities”, it adds.
EDP’s shareholders include state-owned China Three Gorges (20.86 percent), which joined the company in December 2011, Oppidum Capital (6.82 percent) of Spain, US-based BlackRock, Inc (6.82 percent) and Canada Pension Plan (5.61 percent), according to EDP’s official website.
Currently, CEM’s shareholders include Nam Kwong Development (H.K.) Limited (42.0 percent), Energia Asia (21.2 per cent), Polytech Industrial Limited (11 percent), Asiainvest – Investment Company Limited (10 percent), Macau Special Administrative Region Government (8 percent) and China Power International Holding Ltd. (6 percent), according to CEM’s official website.
In 2022, CEM reported a net profit of 902 million patacas, 226 million patacas less than in 2021.
