PowerGrid to raise Rs 8,000 crore via bonds

Government-controlled Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL), that launched its follow-on public offer (FPO) today, plans to raise around Rs 8,000-crore in domestic debt through issue of bonds in 2011-12.

A senior company executive said the bond issue is expected to come out in July-August 2011. The company had raised Rs 6,200 crore in debt earlier this year and expects to get about Rs 4,000 crore through the FPO issue.

PowerGrid Director (Finance) J Sridharan said, “We will be raising the amount through bonds in the second or third quarter of the next (financial year).”

Chairman S K Chaturvedi said the company will be raising only domestic debt next year. He said the company had tied up a $3.1-billion loan from the World Bank and $2.5 billion from the Asian Development Bank. Of its total debt of Rs 36,624 crore, about 30-40 per cent are foreign currency loans.

The company handles 50 per cent of the country’s total power generation. It plans to spend Rs 58,000 crore to execute nine high capacity power transmission corridors covering Orissa, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, coastal Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Sikkim.

“We have already got approval from the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission and are expecting to start transmission in five to six years,” said Director (projects) I S Jha, in Kolkata.