South Korea’s SK Engineering & Construction (SK E&C) has teamed up with a Turkish firm for a multi-billion-dollar project to build and operate new power plants in Iran with a combined generation capacity of 5,000 megawatts, the South Korean firm said Saturday.

Officials from the South Korean builder said the company has successfully purchased a 30 percent stake in UNIT International S.A., Turkey's energy giant, one day after the two companies signed the deal in Istanbul.

Under the deal, the South Korean firm will join the Turkish firm's ongoing project to build and operate five new gas-fired power plants in Iran, said to be worth $4.2 billion in total.

SK E&C will likely be in charge of building the five new power stations, company officials noted.

The power stations are set to have a combined generation capacity of 5,000 megawatts, making them Iran's largest privately developed power plants, they added.

 (Source: Yonhap)