Conglomerate Synergy Drive announced it had won government approval to acquire a 60 percent stake in a consortium which will lay a multi-million dollar undersea power cable.

"Synergy Drive will hold a 60 per cent equity in a consortium involved in laying undersea cables to transmit electricity from the Bakun dam in Sarawak to Peninsular Malaysia," it said in a statement late yesterday.

Synergy Drive said the government had agreed to allow it to hold the majority stake in the firm involved in the power transmission project.

The mega job involves laying two 700-km undersea cables to transport power from the 2,400-megawatt Bakun hydro-electric dam.

The first cable will be ready for transmission by 2013 and the second by 2015.

Discussion on cost

Synergy Drive said it would now begin discussions on the cost of the project and outline tariff proposals for state-owned Tenaga Nasional Berhad, Malaysia's only power distributor.

Synergy Drive is the just-completed merged vehicle of three government-linked plantation groups, Sime Darby, Kumpulan Guthrie and Golden Hope Plantations in an 11 billion dollar deal.

It will be the world's largest listed palm oil firm when it lists at the end of this month.