Conduit Repurchases Jamaica Asset

New York-based private equity firm Conduit Capital has closed on the acquisition of Jamaica Energy Partners (JEP) and a 55% stake in Panama’s 55MW Pedregal plant, chairman J. Scott Swensen tells LatinFinance, adding that the total price paid is about $100m. Conduit had previously owned JEP and sold it to Texas-based Basic Energy in December 2007 for $92.5m. The new deal with JEP, Swensen says, includes the rights to build a 60MW expansion. JEP already generates 124MW. Conduit also acquired the rights to build a plant in Haiti and another in Grand Cayman. Other deals to take place so far this year within the energy generation sector are the sale of Peru’s Aguaytia Energy to Duke Energy for $28m, and Dubai-based Levant Capital’s acquisition of stakes in APR Energy plants in Haiti, Costa Rica and Argentina for $30m. Much larger deals have been struck in the energy distribution sector, the biggest so far being Cemig’s acquisition of Brazil-based Terna Participacoes for about $1bn.