(Yicai) Oct. 13 -- China's Yongfu Power Engineering will team up with a local partner to build its first self-funded photovoltaic power station abroad with a total investment of USD97.5 million in Bangladesh.

The Chinese provider of power engineering services will collaborate with two energy firms controlled by Shafiqul Islam, an entrepreneur, to construct the project with an expected megawatt peak of 95 in Chittagong, the second-largest city in Bangladesh which boasts rich optical resources, the Fujian province-based company said in a statement yesterday, without disclosing the shareholding ratio. The station should take one year to build and have a lifetime of two decades.

This is the first new energy project that Yongfu has invested in overseas and it should optimize the company’s business structure and industrial positioning, as well as increase its brand awareness, the firm said. Meanwhile, Islam has rich experience in developing energy projects, having invested in a PV station in Mymensingh, another city in the country in South Asia. Yongfu was assigned to build the project.

The Chittagong plant should generate 1,475 hours of energy per year or about 140 million kilowatt hours. The internal rate of return should be around 15.6 percent, indicating promising prospects for the investors, per Yongfu.

The investment plan failed to boost Yongfu's stock price [SHE: 300712] as the shares dropped by 1.9 percent to CNY29 (USD4) as of 2 p.m.

Editor: Emmi Laine