TUNIS  -- Pireco Group, the Tunisia energy infrastructure general contracting group, would consider selling a minority stake in the company to a strategic partner, Pireco chairman and CEO Abdessalem Ben Ayed said.

Pireco, which is a subsidiary of the Al Badr Group, could considering selling a 25% to 30%  stake in the group as a means to expand the company’s current operations in Libya, Iraq, Algeria and Mauritania.

In an interview with Capitol Intelligence/IntelliNews in his office, Ben Ayed said the company, which has annual sales of between USD 250m to USD 300m does not need cash but a strategic partner could accelerate the company’s already strong growth rate.

Ben Ayed said that Pireco could consider allowing the strategic partner to appoint their own executive as chief financial officer for the company.

Ben Ayed said that the Al Badr Group has no currently plans to list Pireco but could not exclude doing so in the future.

Pireco is building an off-shore platform with Total and Tunisia’s state oil and gas group Etap in Ashtart: a gas treatment plant with British Gas PLC and Bechtel Corporation, a wind power plant in Sidi Daoud, a water injection project in the North Rumeila oil field region of Bassora (Iraq) and a gas pipeline with Italy’s Snamprogetti and GE unit Nuovo Pignone in Algeria.

Pireco also works closely with Genoa-based Ansaldo Energia, a company whose majority shareholder is Finmeccanica SpA and its minority shareholder is Greenwich, Connecticut-based First Reserve Corporation.

Francesco Giuliani, a First Reserve principal and chairman of Ansaldo Energia, told this news service in a telephone interview that the Greenwhich-based private equity fund is not looking at acquiring minority stakes.

He also said that First Reserve’s minimum deal size is above USD 300m.

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