[Sponsored Report] Kepco’s success surges in international market

Kepco CEO Cho Hwan-eik visits the Kepco Nuclear Fuel company.

Korea Electric Power Corporation (Kepco), the country’s main electricity provider, has been doing business overseas for 19 years.

In 2013, Kepco made 3 trillion won ($2.8 billion) from its work abroad, mainly benefitting from its involvement in building power plants in the Philippines, China, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

The contracts Kepco inked with the power plants usually last 20 to 30 years, resulting in long-term yields. Kepco’s international business success continues to expand as a result.

This year, Kepco is working on 39 projects in 22 countries. The intense expansion to the global market is Kepco’s strategy in the face of a growth slowdown in the Korean market. It is also the policy of Cho Hwan-eik, Kepco’s CEO, to reduce the domestic company’s debt with profit earned from projects abroad.

The international business will concentrate solely on profitability, differentiating from the national business where Kepco has to consider public benefit.

For stronger international competitiveness, Kepco is focused on localizing thermal, nuclear and renewable energy, and resource and energy distribution globally.

As a public enterprise, the company aims to grow with other Korean companies. By playing a dominant role in international contracts, Kepco can include Korean construction and equipment companies into its projects abroad.

For example, Kepco constructed a thermal power plant construction with Doosan Heavy Industries in Vietnam last year.

And Kepco vows to continue introducing the high technology of Korean companies to the world.

“Our plan is to make 16.5 trillion won, 20 percent of the company’s total profit, in the international market,” said a Kepco official. “We will continue to refine our service for the global clients.”