With no longer holding the water entity that supplied the commodity to households in Selangor, Tan Sri Rozali of Puncak Niaga has been looking for new ventures that could potentially catapult him back into the big game. The savvy businessman had a sprawling empire at one time, including oil and gas, however since selling of the water business to the state government the timing hasn’t been right for a return, until now.
As an Executive Chairman of Pimpinan Ehsan Berhad predominantly an investment holding company, Rozali has identified renewal energy as his calling and has proposed to take over solar power plant firm, reNikola in hopes to grow the operations into a mega enterprise. Incidentally this will be the biggest acquisition for PEB since its establishment in 2016.
reNIKOLA group of companies is principally involved in renewable energy generation and has a combined portfolio of approximately 418 megawatt peak capacity of solar assets upon completion by end 2021 and 2022, across 4 sites in Kedah, Pahang and Perlis.
Under PEB, renewable energy will be the core business with intentions to grow both domestically and regionally, according to Director at reNikola Lim Beng Guan the plan is to first expand the solar portfolio and gradually expand the footprints in other green energy sector.
Malaysia aims to reduce its dependent on fossil fuel and looking to establish itself as key nation pushing the green agenda, its set a target to use 20% clean energy by 2030. This is encouraging industries to venture heavily into alternative energy source like solar, more Large-Scale Solar programmes are set to come on line and PEB is hoping to tap into these opportunities.
Managing Director of reNIKOLA, Boumhidi Adel added “globally, the world is swiftly moving towards renewable or clean energy and reduce reliance on fossil fuel. Despite the current pandemic, governments and businesses are pursuing decarbonization plans. In the US alone, the new Biden administration plans to invest USD2 trillion over 4 years to increase the use of clean energy. Closer to us, China has pledged to reach carbon neutrality by 2060, with 60 other small countries aiming to do so by 2050. As such, the market for renewable energy is huge with enormous demand.”
Presently, PEB is a cash company without any core business. As at 30 September 2020, it has total cash of RM70.32 million. The acquisition is subject to approvals from the Securities Commission, Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad (“Bursa Securities”), Energy Commission, Tenaga Nasional Berhad and shareholders of PEB at an extraordinary general meeting to be convened.
