Sai Kung’s energy magnate — yes, we have at least one — reports his new Philippine power plant will start generating electricity for the first time by March. Stewart Elliott, who lives on Tai Mong Tsai Road in a seafront house that may be the district’s most valuable, controls Energy World Corporation.
Stewart is a low-profile, self-made man. On making his acquaintance, you would find him modest and engaging. Yet if he isn’t already a US$ billionaire, he is well on the way.
Stewart arrived in Hong Kong as a young English engineer more than 35 years ago. He had expertise in slip-form construction, where formwork slides up a building as concrete is poured. Hopewell Centre was constructed this way and Stewart became an Executive Director of Hopewell Holdings. He was Gordon Wu’s right-hand man. Briefly, Stewart went on to lead the development of Consolidated Electric Power Asia, which built power stations in several Asian countries. CEPA was sold in 1997 for US$3.2 billion.
Now Stewart is replicating this success with his own firm, Energy World Corporation. It is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and headquartered here in Sun Hung Kai Centre. Much of Stewart’s wealth is private, under the radar. He owns The Excelsior Hotel in Malta, Energy World International, a private company doing energy projects, too, and Slipform Engineering, a contractor.
Like its boss, Energy World Corporation is quite low profile. Only investors who follow the small and medium size energy sector will be aware of it. EWC’s market capitalisation at time of writing was A$563 million. The shares were hovering at 32 Australian cents. Earlier this year they were 45c. Doubtlessly the oil price slump had had an effect. Stewart owns about a third of Energy World and is controlling shareholder and CEO.
EWC will soon announce major milestones. It will switch on its Pagbilao power station (planned to be 600MW) by March and start feeding electricity into the Luzon grid. Also soon to start earning for the company is the LNG hub near the Philippine power station on the Pagbilao island, south of Manila. Similarly, another LNG project is to begin operating commercially in a few months at Sulawesi, Indonesia. In both countries the gas will be fed from EWC’s own LNG project into its own power station. The Sulawesi one is now 315MW. Energy World has smaller power station and gas operations in Australia. (Space doesn’t allow us to report all EWC interests — see the recent annual report at www.energyworldcorp.com)
Stewart lives with his wife, Pam, at 188 Tai Mong Tsai Road in a house he built himself. When he is in town, that is: He has energy projects planned or under development on most continents, some destined to be part of the publicly listed EWC and some for EWI, his private company.
Be the first to comment