Ghodawat Energy to go public in three years

Kolhapur based Ghodawat Energy Private Ltd (GEPL), part of Ghodawat Industries, is planning to invest around Rs 1,300 crore to increase its wind turbine production and to set up wind farms. To support the investment the company is planning to go public and initiated talks with private equity for fund raising.

Speaking to Business Standard at the sidelines of Renewable Energy Chennai 2009 Conference which was inaugurated at Chennai today Shrenik S Ghodawat said that the company had tied up with Austrian-based AMSC Win Tech GMBH last year to manufacture wind turbines at Kolhapur. The facility manufactured two turbines till now and by March 2010 it had set a target to manufacture 15 turbines.  This year the facility would manufacture 25 MW and it will be scaled up to 100 MW in two years. By end of 2012 the capacity would be 500 MW.

On the second phase another 500 MW will be added. Total investment, since inspection, upto 2012-13 would be around Rs 400 crore. The investments include manufacturing of turbines, components and backward integration.

Initially the facility would cater to domestic market and will look at export from end of 2011. The company is looking at exporting to Africa and Middle East. The company is looking for partners in these countries who would bring local marketing and licence expertise. “We have started the process of identifying the partners in six months we would finalise the partners,” he added.

Speaking about power generation business, Ghodawat said the company had installed around 100 MW of wind energy so far and planning to add another 150 MW by 2012-13 with an investment of around Rs 900 crore. The company is looking at setting up wind farms at Maharastra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh.

Ghodawat said the company would fund the project through equity, internal accruals and debt. “We are talking to private equity funds and also planning to list the company in 2-3 years.” He claimed, by 2012-13 the company would generate a revenue of around Rs 2,000 crore from the current Rs 125 crore. The company is looking at 50 per cent equity of the proposed investments.

Commenting on the tower business, he said, the business was started in 2004-05 and currently caters to companies like Vestas, Suzlon , GE and others. Currently the unit produces 400 towers per annum and it is likely to be scaled by another 100 towers by 2012-13. “This would not require any significant investment.”