Fin closure of BGR Energy's Rs 4,400-cr plant in 3 months

BGR Energy Systems Ltd expects to achieve financial closure for its Rs 4,400-crore boiler and turbine manufacturing facilities, coming up in Kanchipuram district in Tamil Nadu, in the next three to four months. It has appointed SBI and IDBI for the purpose.

In August last year, BGR Energy signed memoranda of understanding (MoU) with Hitachi (Japan) and its subsidiary Hitachi Power Europe GmbH (Germany), to set up boiler and turbine manufacturing facilities.

T Sankaralingam, managing director, BGR Energy Systems, said that the company had spent Rs 150 crore on acquisition of land for the project. The investment was from the Rs 960-crore equity portion of BGR, and would be spread over three years. During the current fiscal, the company is planning to spend another Rs 250-300 crore.

The company had not disclosed the location at the time of signing MoU in August last year, stating that it has shortlisted locations. According to sources, the project is now coming at Kanchipuram district and around 400-500 acres of land is being acquired for the two facilities.

Sankaralingam said the financial closure for the project will be done in the next 3-4 months and the product is expected to be rolled out from the facility in 14-18 months. The plant would have a capacity to manufacture five units per annum of 660 MW, 800 MW and 1000 MW capacity.

The Chennai-based EPC company for power, oil and gas sector projects has said that in 2010-11, it had bagged orders worth Rs 2,941 crore. Its order book size is of Rs 7,971 crore (Rs 2,500 crore from the private sector) including Rs 7,350 crore from power sector, Rs 400 crore from oil and gas and the rest from others.

A Swaminathan, director (sales and marketing), BGR Energy, said, "The company is bidding for projects of 40,000 MW capacity, worth Rs 30,000 crore. This includes 2,000-3,000 MW of gas-based projects and around 2,000-4,000 MW imported coal-based ones."

The company's net profit for the year ended March 31, 2011, rose 61 per cent to Rs 324.21 crore from Rs 201.02 crore a year ago, while its revenue rose by 45.78 per cent to Rs 4,474.49 crore from Rs 3,069.25 crore.