Aggreko secures £47 million Ivory Coast contract

By PERRY GOURLEY
Published on 19/11/2012 20:16

AGGREKO, the Glasgow-based temporary power provider, has won a £47 million contract in the African state of Ivory Coast.

Under the two-year deal, the firm will provide 100 megawatts (MW) of temporary power to

reinforce existing electricity supplies in the country as it builds more permanent capacity.

Aggreko is already providing power to the country under a contract announced in 2010.

Chief executive Rupert Soames said he was delighted that the company had won a further deal in the area.

“We believe this underlines the success of our gas-fuelled power plants in which we have invested heavily in recent years. World-wide we now have over 750 MW of gas-fuelled capacity on rent,” he said.

Meanwhile it has emerged that Aggreko is pursuing a £692,000 claim against a public body on the Caribbean island of Antigua.

The case against the Antigua Public Utilities Authority alleges that it failed to pay money owed for the supply of generators in 2008.

Last month, Aggreko warned that bad debt provision and adverse exchange rates would take the edge off its financial performance although assured it was trading broadly in line with expectations.

At the time, Soames said the company had reduced the amount of energy it delivered to two customers in South America and one in Africa who were not paying bills on time.

Aggreko’s international power projects business, which provides temporary energy mainly to developing countries, saw underlying revenues increase 15 per cent in the third quarter of the year. Shares in the firm closed up 25p at 2,120p.