Lanco Infra to add 2,000 MW this year

Lanco Infratech, a Rs 3,336-crore Hyderabad-based infrastructure firm, will commission 2,000-MW of power projects in 2009.

“When completed, these projects could add Rs 400 crore to our net profit from the next financial year and about 40 per cent of this should materialise in the current financial year, which is good in this kind of market,’’ said Lanco’s CFO Venkatesh Babu.

The 2,000 MW of projects will roughly cost Rs 10,000 crore and the estimates for profits are based on assuming a 20 per cent return on the equity (Rs 2,000 crore) that developers seek from such power projects.
 

ALL CHARGED UP Projects to go online in 2009
Project	Size/value (Rs crore)	Commissioning
Amarkantak phase I	300 MW (1200)	Feb-end
Amarkantak phase II	300 MW (1400)	Sep-Dec
Kondapalli phase II	360 MW (1300)	June-Sep
Udupi power project	1050 MW (4600)	End-Dec

These projects include 300-MW Amarkantak phase I in Chhattisgarh that will be commissioned in four weeks, 300-MW Amarkantak phase II to be ready between September and December, and 360-MW Kondapalli (stage II) in Andhra Pradesh to be commissioned between June and September. Lanco will also commission a 1,050-MW, coal-based power project in Udupi (Karnataka) by the year-end. These four projects add up to 2,010 MW of capacity. Besides, it will commission a 70-MW Budhil Nala project by March 2010 in Himachal Pradesh and 20 MW of small hydel projects in the state.

More in the pipeline
Lanco Infratech also has several projects in the pipeline. Nearly 4,000 MW of projects have achieved financial closure and for another 4,000 MW of projects, finances are being tied up, CFO Babu told BS in an interview on Monday.

These include 2X660-MW Amarkantak Phase III & IV (phase III has achieved financial closure), 1,200-MW Anpara project in Uttar Pradesh, which too has achieved financial closure and will be commissioned by end-2010 or Q1 2011.

Lanco has also achieved financial closure for 500-MW Teesta hydro project, which is likely to be completed by 2011, few small hydro projects of 70 MW each in Uttarakhand that will be completed in the next three to five years.

It is working on the financial closure of 2,640-MW, coal-fired Babandh power project that will come up in Dhenkanal district of Orissa.

It has got coal allocation for three of the four modules of 660 MW each.

Several Hyderabad-based companies such as Lanco, GMR Infrastructure, OCV Reinforcements (formerly Saint Gobain) and Global Hospitals have been audited by Price Waterhouse, whose role as auditor of Satyam Computer has come under scanner for financial fraud.