Arcapita Bank B.S.C., a leading international investment firm headquartered in Bahrain, on Monday announced that it has formed a joint venture partnership with Colossus Holdings, a Singapore-based holding company of the Tanti group, the multi-billion Indian conglomerate, which will invest $2 billion to develop a 1,650 MW portfolio of wind farms in the Inner Mongolia region of China. This is Arcapita's first investment in China. The joint venture partners have signed a definitive purchase agreement to acquire Honiton Energy Holdings plc, a high growth Chinese wind energy generation company, which will build the portfolio. Honiton was established in 2005 to develop and operate wind power generation facilities within China, and to date, has 50 MW of installed capacity, and a further 100 MW in development. In addition, the company has worked closely with the regional and state authorities in China, and has secured agreements to develop wind farms on 5 separate areas in China, representing a total of 2,244 square kilometers, on which it plans to develop its total capacity to reach 1,650 MW by 2012. Total installed wind energy capacity in China at the end of 2007 was 6,000 MW. Arcapita's partner in this transaction is the Tanti group, an India conglomerate which together with the Tanti family owns 66 percent of Suzlon Energy, one of the world's leading suppliers of wind turbines. This partnership brings capital, as well as technical expertise and together, Arcapita and Colossus intend to invest at least $2 billion into Honiton by 2012 for further wind development projects. Atif A. Abdulmalik, Arcapita's chief executive officer, said “we have previously built expertise in this sector, which we are very pleased to be extending through this partnership with the Tanti group.” __
