Xinhua English Newswire
Fri, Feb 06 1998
Canada's Sherritt International Corp. is building a 150-million US dollar power generation plant in Cuba, despite the United States' bitter opposition to foreign investment there.
The company has created Sherritt Power Corp. to oversea the project, which would use national gas to fire up generators to produce electricity, reports said Friday.
Sherritt International will take a 49-percent equity stake for 14 million dollars in the new company and buy 17 million dollars of the notes. The total money to be raised in the market could be up to 150 million US dollars.
The Cuban government was reported to have approved the electricity venture with Cuban partners to be built in four phases and targeted for completion by April 2000.
Sherritt International has been active in Cuba's energy industry since 1992 and wants to strengthen its investments in mining and expand into real estate, sugar and communications, according to the company's spokeswoman Patrice Merrin Best.
It is one of a handful of companies singled out under the controversial U.S. Helms-Burton law, which prohibits trade with and investment in Cuba.
Four of the company's executives have already been blacklisted by the U.S. under the law and can't enter the United States.