Essar Energy arm to buy Navabharat Power

London-listed Essar Energy, part of the shipping-to-telecom conglomerate Essar Group, today said its arm, Essar Power Ltd (EPL), had agreed to acquire Navabharat Power Pvt Ltd. Navabharat Power is setting up a 2,250-mega watt (Mw) coal-fuelled power plant at Dhenkanal in Orissa.

Initially, EPL would acquire a 76 per cent stake and the rest would be acquired on completion of certain project milestones, said a press release. Essar did not disclose the deal size.

Navabharat Power is a special purpose vehicle between Hyderabad-based Malaxmi Energy Ventures and Nava Bharat Ventures, a sugar-to-ferro alloys and power stock exchange-listed company.

The project is being implemented in two phases, Phase-I of 1,050 Mw and Phase-II of 1,200 Mw, at a total estimated cost of close to Rs 9,000 crore.

Both phases are scheduled to start commercial operations by the end of 2014. The project also includes Rampia coal block, with a reserve of 112 million metric tonne, and a 4.7 million metric tonne per annum tapering coal linkage with Coal India.