At a special meeting of the shareholders in November 1997, the Company's shareholders voted to have all of the Company's shares exchanged for shares in a new parent Company, Light & Power Holdings Ltd.

Thus, on January 2, 1998, The Barbados Light & Power Company became a wholly owned subsidiary of Light & Power Holdings, which could then seek out new business opportunities in and outside of the region.

However, there was no consequential change in the share ownership, with some 63% of the shares owned by approximately 2,800 Barbadian investors, of which the National Insurance Board was the largest, with 28% of the Company's shares.

The remaining 37% of Light & Power Holdings shares are owned by Canadian International Power Co. Ltd., whose parent company is the Leucadia National Corporation of the USA.


Mr. McConney, who led the Company out of a difficult period and into its modem era of expansion, retired from the Company in early 1999 after 35 years' service. He was succeeded as Managing Director by Andrew Gittens, who had joined the Company in 1967 and, at the time of his appointment to the post of MD, was the Company's Director of Engineering.

In 1999, the Company completed the installation of a new 20-megawatt gas turbine at its Seawell generating station, supplied under a turnkey contract by ABB Stal of Sweden. At the end of 1999, the Company's installed capacity totalled 185.5 megawatts.

Nearly half of this is the base load capacity of steam turbines (40 MW) and low speed diesels (51.5 MW). The balance is medium and high-speed diesels (30.5 MW) and gas turbines (63.5 MW) used for intermediate and peaking duty. The average load was around 89 MW with a peak demand of some 125 MW. For the financial year ended December 31, 1999, the BL&P earned a net profit of $12.8 million on gross revenues of $191.5 million.