The US’ AES Corporation and Saudi Arabia’s Islamic Development Bank’s (IBD) infrastructure fund have concluded the sale of three power plants in Oman and Pakistan.

The two plants in Pakistan will be sold to the local Nishat Power, which is in consortium with Abu Dhabi Investment Council (Adic), and the plant in Oman will be sold to Saudi Arabia’s Acwa Power.

Under the terms of the sale the buyers will take on the $276m of debt on the plants, and give AES Corporation a profit of $200m. It is unknown how much profit the IDB fund is making from the sale.

Steve Walsh, president of AES Middle East, says, “The sale is still contingent on some local regulatory approvals but we expect to be able to close the deal by the end of first quarter of 2010.”

He adds, “We continue to see a lot of opportunity for growth in the region through projects in the power and desalination sector.”

The sale was launched in February and had originally included an additional plant in Jordan, but this was withdrawn from the sale following complications with AES Corporation’s contractual obligations to the plant. Instead, the IDB fund is now looking to sell its minority stake in the plant, which it hopes to conclude in early 2010 (MEED 6:12:09).