Toyota Tsusho Corporation ("Toyota Tsusho") announces that it will participate in construction and operation of the St. Joseph natural gas-fired combined-cycle power plant ("St. Joseph Energy Center") in the State of Indiana, U.S.A. Toyota Tsusho will contribute 20% of the equity capital for the project and the funds managed by Ares EIF Group ("Ares EIF"), a subsidiary of Ares Management, L.P. who is a global alternative asset manager, will contribute 80% of the equity capital. St. Joseph Energy Center has been developed by Development Partners Group, LLC.

The nameplate capacity of St. Joseph Energy Center will be 700MW. The plant is expected to begin construction in November 2015 and commercial operations in the spring of 2018. After the commercial operation date, the plant's output will be supplied to the PJM(*), the largest wholesale electricity market in North America.

Highly efficient gas-fired power plants such as the St. Joseph Energy Center are expected to replace many of the aging coal-fired power plants in the nation. St. Joseph Energy Center will contribute to clean and stable energy supply in the Midwest region.

Toyota Tsusho views North America as a focused market for its power business. Toyota Tsusho aims to realize clean and stable energy supply through the expansion of its power business with various project schemes. St. Joseph Energy Center is Toyota Tsusho's sixth power project in North America (gross generating capacity is 4,155 MW) and fourth power project to supply its output to wholesale markets in the U.S. (gross generating capacity in the U.S. is 2,840 MW).

Toyota Tsusho will continue to promote environmentally friendly power generation in North America through energy efficient systems by using natural gas as well as its renewable energy portfolio.