CLP finalises ECB loan of Rs 1,300 cr for Jhajjar unit

CLP India, the largest foreign-based power company operating in India, has entered into a financing agreement with five banks from abroad to fund $288 million (Rs 1,300 crore) through the external commercial borrowing (ECB) route, to fund its 1,320-Mw unit coming up at Jhajjar in Haryana.

The consortium — the Bank of Tokyo–Mitsubishi UFJ, China Development Bank Corporation, the Export-Import Bank of China, The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, and Standard Chartered Bank — will finance the Rs 6,000-crore project’s first phase. The project had previously received sanctions for Rs 3,900 crore in loans, part of which will now be refinanced, using the cheaper ECB financing, went a company statement.

The earlier rupee transaction was lead-arranged by IDBI Bank and funded by Power Finance Corporation, Rural Electrification Corporation and Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation, among others. It had included a $112-million ECB tranche from India Infrastructure Finance Company (UK), to be now be augmented by this $288 million.

“The international financial community’s confidence in us, and in this project specifically, makes us the first power generation company in India with a project financed by a foreign lender in a long time,” said Rajiv Mishra, managing director, CLP India.

CLP said this would be one of the first coal-fired generation projects in India to be project-financed by a consortium of foreign banks since the Dabhol power project. The first unit is scheduled to be commissioned by December 2011 and the second one by May 2012.

The Hong Kong-based CLP’s wholly owned subsidiary, CLP India, is targeting to reach 10,000 Mw of power generation by 2015, with an investment of an additional Rs 30,000 crore. It has already invested close to Rs 10,000 crore in India in the past eight years, in gas, coal and wind energy projects.

CLP is one of the largest power companies in the Asia Pacific region, with over 50 generation, transmission and distribution assets, and retail businesses, with 19,000 Mw of capacity in Hong Kong, China, Australia, Philippines and Laos.

It entered India in 2002 by acquiring a 655-Mw gas/naphtha-based combined cycle plant, Gujarat Paguthan Energy Corporation, at Bharuch in Gujarat from Power Plc of UK. It is planning to expand the capacity of this plant by another 1,000 Mw, with gas as fuel. CLP India is already the largest wind power generator in the country, with close to 500 Mw of projects and a plan to add 300 Mw each year in the coming years, to reach a capacity of 2,000 Mw in this form of energy.