Tuesday, February 17, 2015

New Zealand:

Contact Energy to Consider Overseas Geothermal Energy Investment (New Zealand Herald)

New Zealand power developer and utility Contact Energy could be heading for a showdown with minority shareholders over what to do with a $1 billion pot of cash.

The company announced yesterday it was considering investing in geothermal projects in countries on the Pacific's "ring of fire" rather than return excess cash to shareholders, which was what most investors had been expecting.

Contact Energy chief executive Dennis Barnes said his company would make a decision on whether to invest or return capital within the next six months.

Contact geothermal experts had been in Indonesia, Chile and the United States assessing opportunities, which would need to be areas where there was a proven resource, he said. It would be a different approach compared with Mighty River Power.

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