This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on December 14 - 20, 2015.

The name China General Nuclear Power Corp (CGN) may not ring a bell outside China — where it is the largest nuclear power plant group with 13.8gw of installed capacity and 14.5gw under construction — but it hogged the limelight when it won its bid for Edra Global Energy Bhd with its offer of RM9.83 billion, plus assuming the latter’s net debt of RM6.8 billion.

Through Edra, the Chinese company will gain a foothold in four countries and, more importantly, have access to a diverse workforce that is able to work beyond Malaysia’s shores and compete for international projects.

To date, Edra represents CGN’s largest foray into power assets abroad. The Chinese utility group currently has 2,213mw of installed capacity away from home and Edra’s effective installed capacity of 5,594mw will almost triple its footprint abroad.

The state-owned enterprise can trace its origins back to the 1970s when China first started to implement its nuclear energy programme. CGN owns a controlling stake in the country’s first nuclear power plant, Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station, whose construction began in 1987.

CGN is 90%-owned by China’s state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, which comes under the country’s State Council.

The utility giant was formed in 1994, when the Daya Bay station was completed, and was then known as China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group. In 2013, the group was renamed China General Nuclear to signify its expansion beyond Guangdong province. Today, it has over 25gw of installed capacity, not including the 5.59gw that Edra will add.

As at June 30, 2015, CGN had RMB398.47 billion worth of assets in its books. For the full year ended December 2014, it posted a net profit of RMB3.51 billion on revenue of RMB20.66 billion.

CGN prides itself on being a clean energy company. Nuclear energy is deemed “clean” in this context because it produces much lower carbon emissions compared to conventional thermal power plants that burn oil, natural gas and coal.

It is worth noting that Edra’s power plants run on conventional fuels.

Last week, CGN inked a deal that will see it invest €1.6 billion over five years into French photovoltaic solar panel producer Inovia Concept Development (ICD). The deal will see CGN and ICD roll out 1gw of solar panels to be installed on buildings, hangars, greenhouses and other outdoor structures.

In a written reply to The Edge, CGN says: “The strategic positioning of CGN is to become a world-leading clean energy supplier and service provider. In order to achieve this goal, CGN has been exploring power asset investment opportunities globally.”

Under its new energy business arm, the group has hydroelectric and solar power and a wind power capacity of 7GW. The nature of most of its recent acquisitions outside China has been wind power — Mortons Lane Wind Farm in Australia, Clover Wind Farm in the UK and Fujin Wind Farm in France.

So, why did the group buy into Edra? “CGN was extremely impressed by the highly regulated, stable and transparent independent power producer framework in Malaysia. It was this understanding that gave CGN the confidence to make a long-term investment in Malaysia through the acquisition of Edra,” says a spokesman.

In terms of creating value, it would not be surprising if CGN listed Edra a few years down the road, once the company had more power assets under its belt. In late 2014, it raised over HK$23.8 billion in the Hong Kong listing of its subsidiary, CGN Power Co. CGN also has another Hong Kong-listed subsidiary, CGN New Energy Holdings Ltd (formerly known as  CGN Meiya Power Holdings Co Ltd.

This expansion drive is in line with China’s “One Belt, One Road” and “Going Out” strategies. However, CGN is not just looking to be a Chinese company with a lot of international assets but an international company.

Its drive to expand abroad and internationalise is embodied by its chairman He Yu, who even speaks French fluently. To grow, CGN cannot remain solely Chinese. It has to embrace the local cultures and norms of where it acquires power assets.

The spokesman assures that CGN will not use its growing foreign reach to advance other Chinese interests. The acquisitions are purely business driven.

“As a strategic investor, CGN strongly believes that a company is its people and that they know how to run and keep the business competitive in the countries in which they operate. While CGN encourages the current local management and staff to continue running the Edra companies, CGN will also utilise, whenever necessary, its know-how, experience and expertise in the O&M (operations and management) of power projects to further enhance the performance of Edra assets on an ongoing basis,” the company says.

CGN will also explore and consider the most beneficial and cost-effective engineering, procurement and construction contractors and equipment vendors from all over the world, it adds.

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