Tenaga ... Feb11

Tenaga Nasional Bhd is benefiting from the stronger ringgit versus the US dollar in terms of interest payments on foreign loans, especially loans denominated in the US dollar.

TNB currently services the interest on its overseas loans in both the US dollar and yen with its US dollar loan exposure coming to US$5 billion and its borrowings in the Japanese currency amounting to five billion yen.

The lower repayments due to the higher ringgit has also partly cushioned the impact of rising coal prices.

Tenaga will be going to have a big repayment in April 2011 and with this strengthening of ringgit it will help it to further reduce its obligation on repayments.

Asked whether the rising coal price would reduce the benefits coming from a stronger ringgit, Che Khalib said that while coal prices have gone up by 20 per cent, the ringgit has also strengthened by 10 per cent.

The coal prices was now in the region of US$120 per tonne which has surpassed TNB's US$100 per metric tonne level.