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War threat may delay Enron`s Dabhol plant sale
Mumbai, June 08: Tension between India and Pakistan is likely further to delay the sale of Enron`s idled $2.9-billion power plant.
The simmering border conflict has slowed down business activity in the region and could test the patience of foreign bidders for collapsed energy trader Enron's largest asset in Asia and its most valuable property still on the block, analysts said on Friday.
"The sale will get delayed by at least another six to eight months ... Companies in the West are not even looking at this part of the world in this situation," said Anant Katare, an analyst at Khandwala Securities. "It looks pretty bleak."
India and Pakistan have massed a million soldiers on their border, with New Delhi insisting that Islamabad stop fomenting separatist violence in Indian Kashmir. Pakistan says it provides only moral support.
Dabhol Power Company, which owns and runs the project, is 65 per cent owned by Enron, 10 per cent each by GE and privately owned US contractor Bechtel Corp and 15 per cent by Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB), the Indian state utility that was its only customer.
Bureau Report