SEOUL (Bloomberg) -- Korea Electric Power Corp. is in discussions with at least five countries to build nuclear-power plants after winning a $20 billion order from the United Arab Emirates last month, a company official said.

“We’re in serious talks with Turkey, Jordan and Malaysia and we’ve attracted China and India’s interest,” Chung Kun Mo, a nuclear adviser to the South Korean state-run utility, said in an interview at his office in Seoul on Tuesday. “There are many countries knocking on our door. Even Kenya is interested.”
Korea Electric has gained 21 percent since a group led by the company won the U.A.E. contract on Dec. 27, beating Areva SA and General Electric Co. South Korea, aiming to secure $400 billion of nuclear plant contracts by 2030, should also tap electricity generation demand from African nations, Chung said.
“Developing markets including African countries would be a good target for South Korea as they lack experience and need more power capacity to meet demand,” said Choi Won Kyung, an analyst at Kiwoom Securities Co. “Korea Electric can win at least one order every year after successfully building the U.A.E. plants. The pie is getting bigger.”
Korea Electric is capable of building reactors cheaper and quicker than international rivals because the company has been adding nuclear generators at home “almost every year,” while the rest of the world took a cautious view on atomic energy over the past quarter of a century, said Chung, a former South Korean Science and Technology Minister who currently also advises the U.A.E. on nuclear power.
The cost of building Korea Electric’s APR1400 reactor is $2,300 per kilowatt, compared with $2,900 for Areva’s EPR and Japan’s ABWR, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said on Jan. 13.
The utility rose 3.9 percent to 41,600 won, the highest since Dec. 24, 2007. The benchmark Kospi Index gained 0.2 percent.