GMR power ties up $820 mn debt for Singapore plant

GMR Energy, the flagship energy wing of GMR Infrastructure, has achieved financial closure for its 800 Mw combined cycle project at Jurong Island, Singapore.

The company has secured term loan facility of Singapore dollar 670 million (around $550 million) along with $270 million of credit as working capital with a tenure of 17 years, a company release said.

According to GMR, six international banks namely Axis Bank, CIMB Bank Behrad, KfW IPEX- Bank Gmbh, National Australia Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and WestLB AG have acted as mandated lead managers to the transaction.

“We have received banking community’s strong support for financial closure, which demonstrates their confidence in the project. This is a good start and augurs well for the project,” G M Rao, group chairman of GMR Infrastructure, said.

GMR Group acquired complete stake of Island Power, which is developing this 800 Mw natural gas based power project in Jurong Island from Intergen NV in 2009. This is the first independent power project (IPP) of the company outside India.

“At a development cost of over $820 million, this power project is expected to be operational in 2013,” a company statement said.

GMR has three completed energy projects — barge mounted power plant at Kakinada, 200 MW power plant in Chennai and Vemagiri plant in Andhra Pradesh.

The projects of GMR Infra, under various phases of implementation, are GMR Orissa power project, Talong power project, Bajoli project, Chhattisgarh project, Upper Karnali hydro-power project, Upper Marsyangadi project among others.

The company has a power generation capacity of 808 Mw by March, 2011, and has 11 projects with a total capacity of 8,448 Mw in its portfolio. Of the total projects, 4,138 Mw is under construction and 4,130 Mw is under development by the end of last financial year.

As per officials of GMR Energy, around 800 Mw is likely to be added to company’s present capacity of which 25 Mw will be solar and the rest will come from two gas power machines in the present financial year.

In the coal front, the company expects to add around 4,000 Mw of coal based power to its present capacity in next three years.

GMR posted a loss of Rs 929.64 crore in the last financial year as compared with a profit of Rs 158.4 crore in the corresponding period last year.

Revenue rose by 26 per cent to Rs 5,773.8 crore during this period. Meantime, the company has posted a 14 per cent increase in operating profit to Rs 1,555.5 crore by end of March, 2011.