KARACHI: After selling its majority stake in K-Electric Limited, the Abraaj Group, a leading investor in growth markets, has purchased a majority stake in Jhimpir Power Limited (JPL), a 50 mega watts (MW) wind power project in the wind corridor in Sindh. On Wednesday, Abraaj announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to purchase a majority stake in Jhimpir Power Limited (JPL) Holdings Pte Ltd from Burj Capital, an international renewable power developer, through its funds. JPL Holdings Pte Ltd. wholly-owns a 50 MW wind power project in the Jhimpir wind corridor in Southeast Pakistan. The Project is expected to commence operations in first quarter of 2018. The Jhimpir wind corridor is an established area for wind projects with 550 MW+ capacity which is already operational and a further 1 GW+ under construction and in the development phase. The Project will be powered by General Electric (GE) wind turbines, with the Huadong Engineering Corporation appointed as the EPC contractor and GE providing the overall operations and maintenance for the Project. The group said that Abraaj is keen to continue its active role in addressing the power supply gap in Pakistan, stemming from favorable macroeconomic growth drivers including a rising middle class, urbanization and historic underinvestment in the energy sector. “A long term power purchase agreement executed with the Central Power Purchasing Agency Limited of Pakistan, a tariff indexed to the US dollar and sovereign guarantees strengthen the investment thesis for projects executed in Pakistan’s wind energy sector”. Commenting on the transaction, Sev Vettivetpillai, Managing Partner and Global Head of Abraaj’s Thematic Fund Business, said, “Our investment into the Jhimpir wind corridor marks our second transaction under Abraaj’s dedicated clean energy platform. With a shortage of over 6,000MW and rising power consumption in Pakistan today, we are excited by the sheer size of the clean energy infrastructure opportunity, enabling government policies and the potential of the Jhimpir wind corridor. Having invested across the energy value chain in growth markets, including the power sector in Pakistan, we look forward to growing our renewable footprint and consolidating our presence in the sector.” In October 2016, Abraaj entered in a definitive agreement to divest its 66.4 percent shareholding in K-Electric to the Shanghai Electric Power Company Limited, marking one of the largest private sector transactions in Pakistan and representing one of the global power industry’s most well-recognized operational turnaround stories.