China Yangtze Power to buy two hydropower stations for $12 billion

BEIJING (Reuters) - China Yangtze Power Co Ltd, the world's largest listed hydropower company by capacity, plans to buy two large hydropower stations for a total of 80.5 billion yuan ($12 billion), boosting its capacity by over a half.

In a filing to the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Thursday, China Yangtze Power said it would buy Three Gorges Jinshajiang Yunchuan Hydropower, the company that owns two major hydropower stations on the Yangtze river - Wudongde and Baihetan.

With the deal, China Yangtze Power, which already runs the world's largest power station by capacity, the Three Gorges Dam, will be acquiring the second and fourth-largest hydropower stations in China by capacity.

The company said this would lift its total installed capacity to 71.8 million kilowatts from 45.6 million kilowatts, an increase of 57%.

The deal was announced in December, but the value of the transaction, one of the largest in China's hydropower sector in recent years, was only revealed on Thursday.

Trading in shares of China Yangtze Power was suspended in December so that controlling shareholder China Three Gorges Corp. could draw up a plan to transfer Wudongde and Baihetan hydropower stations to the Shanghai-listed firm, according to stock exchange filings.

China Yangtze Power said on Thursday it would pay for the deal with cash and by issuing shares. Up to 16.1 billion yuan ($2.4 billion) will be raised through private placement, the company added.

(Reporting by Twinnie Siu and Eduardo Baptista; Editing by Mark Potter)