KUALA LUMPUR (July 23): Ranhill Utilities Bhd said it is forming a consortium to partake in the bidding of a development project relating to the drinking water allocation system of the Jatiluhur dam in Jakarta.

In a bourse filing, Ranhill Utilities said its subsidiary Ranhill Capital Sdn Bhd signed a deal today with two Indonesian firms and two Philippine firms to conduct feasibility studies and take part in the bidding process.

The Indonesian firms are PT Varsha Zamindo Lestari and Perusahaan Perseroan PT Pembangunan Perumahan TBK (PP), while the Philippine firms are Maynilad Water Services Inc and Metropac Water Investments Corp (MWIC).

Under the deal, Ranhill Capital will be the consortium leader with a 74.84% equity interest, while Varsha will hold a 10% stake and PP a 15% stake, and the remaining 0.16% stake will be held by Maynilad and MWIC.

Ranhill Capital will lead in overseeing the overall development of the water project including the conduct and progress of the feasibility studies, as well as pre-funding of feasibility studies expenses.

The project involves developing a drinking water system from the Jatiluhur dam to distribute drinking water into five areas in Jakarta including Bekasi City, Bekasi districts, Karawang districts, Bogor districts, with an allocation scale of some 10,000 litres of raw water per second.

Ranhill Utilities said the Indonesia Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing had on May 29 issued a “letter to proceed” to the consortium parties, to facilitate feasibility studies being carried out on the project.

Shares of Ranhill Utilities closed half sen or 0.6% lower at 89.5 sen today, giving the group a market capitalisation of RM960 million. Year-to-date, the stock is down 16.4%.