Orient Green Power to pledge 23 % to IL&FS

Beta Wind Farm Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of the BSE-listed Orient Green Power Company Ltd (OGPCL), a Shriram Group company plans to set up a 300 mega watt (Mw) wind project in the southern states and Gujarat. For this, it is planning to pledge 23 per cent of the equity shares held in BETA towards IL&FS Financial Services Ltd (IFIN) and other lenders. It is being done for sanctioning of bridge loan of Rs 90 crore.

The company has availed Rs 1,236 crore term loan from the consortium of 10 bankers, the lead banker being Axis Bank Ltd.

BETA had decided to implement the project earlier only in Tamil Nadu. However, the company has been developing infrastructure in others states.

Given that the returns in other state and in other countries such as Sri Lanka are equally attractive in terms of power generation, the plan has been modified, according to company’s explanatory statement to the company’s shareholders.

The company decided to split the 300 Mw project into two phases and phase I of the project related to implementation of 156 Mw in Tamil Nadu and phase II of the project relates to implementation of 144 Mw in Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat.

For the phase II, BETA has already availed the loan facility of Rs 536 crore for which the Orient Green Power issued corporate guarntee to Axis Bank for Rs 536 crore, which will be in addition to the Guarantee for Rs 1,236 crore already issued to the bank earlier.

OGPCL also said that IFIN has sanctioned a bridge loan of Rs 90 crore to BETA out of a subordinated debt of Rs 120 crore. The company sought shareholder approval to provide security by way pledging 23 per cent of the equity shares held in BETA and to seek approval for issuance of corporate guarantee for Rs 120 crore and also approval for providing security by way of pledge of 26 per cent of equity shares capital of BETA in favour of IFIN andôor domestic commercial banks.