(Yicai Global) March 13 -- China's State Grid, the world's largest utility firm, has completed its first electricity transmission network purchase in the Middle East after winning a bid in Oman last November. 

State Grid now has a 49 percent stake in Oman Electricity Transmission, the Beijing-based company said in a statement on its website yesterday. It did not disclose the value of the stake but said that it was the biggest deal in the Middle Eastern country by a Chinese investor.

State Grid will pay Electricity Holding, owned by Oman's finance ministry, USD1 billion for the equity, Reuters reported in December, citing Electricity Holding's Deputy Chief Executive Mansour al-Hinai. State Grid submitted a binding offer last September, about a year after the Seeb-based target firm was reported to start privatization.

By the end of 2018, the Chinese company managed USD63 billion in overseas assets in seven overseas regions, including Brazil, the Philippines, Portugal, Australia, Italy, Greece, and Hong Kong. All of State Grid's assets are profitable, it added. 

Editor: Emmi Laine