VUVUZELA
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- Jun 19, 2010
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Ilikuwa Richmond, sasa Dowans na habari nyeti nilizozipata leo ni kuwa imeshauzwa na itaitwa CPS Energy na deni lao lipo palepale na litalipwa fasta.
A United States-based company, CPS Energy, may take over controversial Dowans Holdings (Tanzania) Limited, which expects to easily fetch $62 million(Sh95 billion) from Tanzanian taxpayers, The Guardian on Sunday has learnt.
If it is sealed, the deal would totally conceal the real owners of the controversial power generating firm, which was awarded billions of shillings by the International Chamber of Commerce last year.
According to impeccable sources, CPS energy is expected to acquire Dowans Holding Tanzania Ltd, in a deal estimated at $60 million.
A source close to the negotiating team told The Guardian on Sunday over the weekend that very soon there will be no Dowans Holding Tanzania Ltd thanks to the new inheritor, a Texas-based power generating firm.
Speaking under conditions of strict anonymity, the source said, The two teams are in the final stages of sealing the acquisition the deal may be ready before March, this year.
The very individual who brought Richmond and Dowans to Tanzania is the mastermind of the takeover He believes the deal will go through in the next few months, our source said. In what seemed to be another dramatic movement, after the acquisition, CPS Energy through its local agent who is the mastermind of the deal would seek an opportunity to generate and supply power to Tanzania Electric Supply Company (Tanesco).
Dowans Holdings Tanzania Ltd is currently at the centre of the heated debate following the judgment by International Chamber of Commerce last year, which among other things awarded a compensation amounting to $62 million to a controversial power generating firm.
The takeover deal may further conceal the real identity of the controversial power generating firm which many believe acquired the power deal dubiously from another US based firm, Richmond Development LLC.
CPS Energy is one of the largest municipally owned energy utilities in Texas, providing both natural gas and electric services,. It was acquired by the City of San Antonio in 1942 according to the companys website.
According to the companys website, it serves 707,000 electricity customers and 322,000 natural gas customers in and around the seventh-largest city.
Contacted on Friday, the Minister for Energy and Minerals, William Ngeleja, said he wasnt aware of the proposed acquisition, adding that what the country needed was a reliable and affordable independent power producer.
The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in December last year awarded Dowans Holdings $ 62 million (about Sh 95 billion) compensation in what the court termed as unlawful termination of its contract with the Tanzania Electric Supply Company (Tanesco) .
The International Chamber of Commerce Tribunal ordered Tanesco to pay Dowans $ 62 million (about Sh 93 billion).
In the request submitted at ICC Tribunal in November, 2008, Dowans prayed for payment of $ 149million, allegedly for breach of contract and for partially unpaid capacity charges in the case heard in June, this year, but ended up being awarded $ 68 million.
According to the 100-page judgement, a copy of which was seen by The Guardian on Sunday, earlier the controversial Dowans Holdings had filed an application at the ICC demanding a total compensation of $149 million(Sh223 billion).
Dowans claimed that Tanescos move to terminate the contract it inherited from Richmond was unlawful. It also further claimed that the termination was reached because of political and media pressure in Tanzania.
Dowans Holdings was controversially assigned by Richmond LLC to undertake the responsibility of generating and supplying electricity to Tanesco, after the US firm totally failed to deliver within a given period.
In another development, The Guardian on Sunday has reliably established that Dowans Holding Tanzania Ltd owed the state-owned Tanesco $23m following the termination of their contract in mid 2009.
The debt has never been paid by Dowans Holding Tanzania Ltd till today and it wasnt clear when the cash-strapped Tanesco will recover the billions.
SOURCE: GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY