KUALA LUMPUR (Apr 20): Tenaga Nasional Bhd advanced as much as 28 sen or 2% to RM14.72 after The Edge Malaysia business and investment weekly (Edge Weekly) reported that JAKS Resources Bhd was offering Tenaga as much as 70% in a multi-billion ringgit power plant project in Vietnam. 

At 9.51am, Malaysian state-controlled utility Tenaga (fundamental: 1.3; valuation: 1.8) erased part of its gains at RM14.60 with 777,900 shares done. 

Tenaga was the second largest-gainer across the bourse. The stock was earlier the top gainer.

At 10:28am, Tenaga shares changed hands at RM14.62.

The Edge Weekly, quoting sources, reported that JAKS (fundmental: 0.5; valuation: 1.5) was courting Tenaga as a potential partner for the former's 2x600MW coal-fired power plant project in Hai Duong, Vietnam. 

Edge Weekly reported that water-infrasrtructure specialist JAKS was in talks with Tenaga for the project, the construction portion of which, was estimated at about RM5 billion.

According to the report, JAKS is running out of time to achieve financial close for the electricity-generation project. 

It was reported that JAKS had until October this year to achieve a financial close.

It is worth pointing out that JAKS had earlier secured two deadline extensions from the Vietnamese government for the project.

(Note: The Edge Research's fundamental score reflects a company's profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations.)