South Jamaica Power Company Limited (SJPC), the operator of Jamaica’s a natural gas generating facility, has received its first credit rating from Caribbean rating agency CariCRIS, securing an investment-grade assessment that could broaden its access to regional debt markets.
CariCRIS assigned ratings of CariA- and CariA on the regional scale for foreign and local currency respectively, and jmA+ and jmAA- on the Jamaica national scale.
“A stable outlook was assigned,” the agency said.
South Jamaica Power Company owns the South Jamaica Power Centre, a 192-megawatt combined-cycle gas plant in Old Harbour Bay, St Catherine.
The company is a joint venture in which Jamaica Public Service (JPS) holds 49.8 per cent through its subsidiary South Jamaica Energy Holdings Limited, having increased its stake from 20 per cent in a US$16-million transaction in 2017. The remaining shareholders are MaruEnergy, EWP (Barbados) 1 SRL, and the PetroCaribe Development Fund. MaruEnergy and EWP are affiliates of JPS’s parent shareholders — Marubeni Corporation of Japan and Korea East-West Power respectively — meaning the plant is effectively controlled by the same Japanese-Korean consortium that owns JPS.
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