China’s dominant electricity distributor, State Grid Corp, may soon end talks to buy a controlling stake in the US wind power business of AES Corp because little progress has been made, a State Grid executive said on Tuesday.
Analysts have said the assets under consideration could be worth about $1.65 billion and an acquisition would mark State Grid’s first foray into the United States, but it was not clear how much State Grid would pay for the assets nor how the business would be structured.
“We have talked about it for a while, but not decided yet. There are some discrepancies that we are trying to resolve,” Shu Yinbiao, deputy general manager of State Grid, told Reuters on the sidelines of an industry conference. “The talks are about to end,” Shu said, without elaborating.
Sources told Reuters in February that State Grid, which has made a string of overseas acquisitions in recent years, had held talks with AES Corp about taking an 80 percent stake in its US wind power business.
Shu told the conference on Tuesday that his company was currently looking at three other projects in the United States.
“We are in talks for cooperation in power grid and equipment manufacturing projects, while our cooperation in wind power renewable energy projects is just starting,” he said, without giving details.
