MEPL dilutes 74% in power project to French firm

Meenakshi Energy and Infrastructure Holdings Private Limited (MEPL), a part of Hyderabad-based Meenakshi Group, has sold 74 per cent of its stake in its 1,000-Mw thermal power project at Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh to French energy group GDF Suez.

KPMG India acted as the exclusive financial advisor for Meenakshi Group on this transaction, which was completed on Monday.

Meenakshi chairman and managing director, D Suresh, said that the company had already spent Rs 3,050 crore on the Rs 6,000-crore project. While a 300-Mw unit, set up at a cost of Rs 1,550 crore, is already operational, the remaining 700-Mw capacity is under construction.

Meenakshi, which will retain 26 per cent stake in the project, believes that the partnership with GDF Suez will be mutually beneficial. GDF is expected to invest an additional $ 300-400 million for completion of the project.

“The size of GDF Suez’s global portfolio will allow MEPL to benefit from a broad multi-disciplinary expertise and to take leverage from GDF Suez’s strong global governance, providing a stable and solid framework that creates consistency and builds trust for stakeholders,” Suresh said in a release on Tuesday.

Listed on the Paris, Brussels and Luxembourg exchanges, Suez employs 138,200 people worldwide and achieved revenues of Euro 82 billion in 2012.