Minrav Holdings Ltd. (TASE: MNRV) subsidiary Minrav Engineering Ltd. and Germany's Solar Millennium AG (XETRA: S2M) have dismantled their joint bid in the Ashelim solar plant tender, Minrav told the tenders committee today.
Minrav and Solar Millennium will reportedly approach the remaining consortia in the tender in order to join them. The two remaining consortia are Siemens Concentrated Solar Power Ltd. (formerly Solel Solar Systems) with Shikun u'Binui Holdings Ltd. (TASE: SKBN) and Brightsource Energy Inc. with France's Alstom SA (LSE: ALS; Euronext: ALO).
Alstom had been in talks with Minrav and Solar Millennium, but decided to go with Brightsource instead. That decision led Minrav and Solar Millennium to dismantle their partnership in the project. Minrav told "Globes", "Since the tender requires a party with experience in the operation of ordinary power stations, and since we lack such a partner, we decided after two years, to dismantle the consortium."
Solar Millennium is one of the few companies in the world currently operating large-scale thermosolar power plants. Minrav Engineering and Solar Millennium's main option is to join Spain's Abengoa Bioenergy SA (IBEX:ABG), which like Alstom has experience in the operation of conventional power stations.
Minrav's share price rose 0.3% today to NIS 225.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 1, 2010
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