Itochu To Buy Power Plant In US From Tenaska

Itochu Corp, Japan's fourth-biggest trading company, said on Monday it would buy a gas-oil fired power plant in Virginia with generation capacity of 315 megawatts from Tenaska Inc for an undisclosed sum.

The Nikkei business daily reported the purchase value at around 20 billion to 30 billion yen ($175-263 million). Itochu will buy the plant, which can power 300,000 households, from Tenaska Power Fund LP, an affiliate of Tenaska Inc, in February.

An Itochu spokesman said the acquisition of the Virginia facility will raise Itochu's net power generation capacity to 440MW. Marubeni Corp, the most aggressive investor among Japanese trading houses in overseas power assets, had a net overseas capacity of 5,800 MW as of August this year.