CESC arm in talks with foreign PE funds for 3 projects

Haldia Energy, a subsidiary of CESC, is in talks with several foreign private euity (PE) funds for raising money for the three projects to be executed by the company, a senior CESC official today said.

Talks are going well with 8-9 foreign PE funds for raising the money, CESC Chairman Sanjiv Goenka said.

He said the company plans to park 20 per cent of its equity with PE funds at a premium of Rs 8-9 per share.

Haldia Energy is the holding company for the proposed power plants at Haldia (West Bengal), Chandrapur (Maharashtra) and Orissa.

The Chandrapur plant would have a capacity of 600 Mw (300 Mw + 300 Mw) and the cost involved would be Rs 3,000 crore.

Referring to the 600-Mw Haldia plant, he said Shanghai Electric of China would be awarded the contract for boiler-turbine-generator, since it quoted the lowest in the tender.

The cost of the Haldia project was being arrived at Rs 5.2 crore per Mw, he said, adding that the construction time would take around 33 months from zero date.

CESC plans to add 7,000 Mw to the present capacity of 1,225 Mw within the next six years at an estimated cost of Rs 35,000 crore.

The company would also set up a hydel project at Arunachal Pradesh.