Mumbai: Tata Power has lost the bid for acquiring the stake of Singapore's state-owned investment company Temasek Holdings in the 3300 MW Senoko Power Limited, Singapore's largest power generating company.

Temasek had shortlisted Tata Power among five other companies, including Japan's Marubeni Corporation, Malaysia's YTL Power Bhd, France-based GDF Suez and a tie-up between Hong Kong's CLP Holdings and Japan's Mitsubishi Corp - OneEnergy Ltd, to bid for the project.

The Marubeni-led group, which included GDF Suez SA, Kansai Electric Power Co. and Kyushu Electric Power Co, agreed to pay $2.5 billion (Singapore $3.65 billion) in cash for Senoko Power Ltd, to expand into Southeast Asia's power and gas markets.

The Marubeni group bid values the Singapore electricity utility to S$1.1 million per megawatt of generating capacity.

The Marubeni consortium will gain a 30 per cent share in Singapore's electricity market as the government sells its generators to further open the industry to competition after the disposal of Tuas Power Ltd earlier this year.

Senoko Power is the second of the three power generating companies that Temasek had planned to divest. After the successful sale of Tuas Power to SinoSing Power Pte Ltd earlier in March, Temasek announced the divestment process of  Senoko Power in July 2008. It also said that it would sell its third power generation company PowerSeraya after the sale of Senoko.

The government would sell a third generator, Power Seraya Ltd, by the end of 2009, Temasek said in July.

Wholly owned by Temasek, Senoko Power accounts for approximately 30 per cent of Singapore's electricity generation in 2007.  It has a combined installed capacity of 3,300 megawatts (MW) comprising 1,945MW of combined cycle plants (CCPs), 1,250 MW of thermal plants and 105MW of fast-start gas turbines. It  owns and operates Senoko Power Station and Pasir Panjang Gas Turbine Station.

It had revenues of S$2,495 million and EBITDA of S$245 million for the year ended 31 March 2008.