L&T to raise Rs 17,000-cr debt

The company was discussing with a consortium of international banks, including home grown ICICI Bank and State Bank of India (SBI) to fund four power projects, each with a capacity of over 1000 mega watt, banking sources said.

L&T, which recently formed two subsidiaries - L&T Power Projects as the investment vehicle for power projects and L&T Power Development Ltd to set up power plants, is planning to invest over Rs 25,000 crore in the next five years in setting up power projects.

Reportedly, L&T is in talks with consumer electronics major Videocon Industries to set up a 1000 mw coal fired power project in Gujarat, with an investment of over Rs 4500 crore.

Sources said L&T would fund the projects in 70:30 per cent debt-equity ratio and plans to bank on its strong balance sheet and order book position to raise the remaining equity portion.

The coal fired projects, ranging with a capacity of above1000 MW, are likely to come up mainly in coal abundant states such as Jharkhand, Orissa, Gujarat and other northern states.

A few months ago, A.M. Naik, L&T Chairman and Managing Director, had revealed the company would set up over 5000 mw (nega watt) of power projects within the next five years.

L&T has two joint ventures with Mitsubishi for building supercritical turbines, boilers and is in the process of setting up a Rs 1,200-crore manufacturing facility at Hazira in Gujarat.

Two days ago, the joint venture bagged Rs 1,557-crore order from Andhra Pradesh Power Development Co (APPDCL) to build two supercritical turbines of 800 mw capacity, becoming the country's first company to win orders in this category.

India is planning to add 78,577 megawatts of power generation capacity by 2012, mainly from coal-fired units, to overcome shortages in electricity.