Swan Energy gets majority stake in GPPC for Rs 381 cr

Mumbai-based Swan Energy Ltd (SEL), formerly known as Swan Mills, has emerged as the majority shareholder in GSPC Pipavav Power Company Ltd (GPPC) with a 49 per cent stake as shareholders of GPPC today signed a formal Shareholders' Agreement among themselves and the company.

According to the agreement, Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Limited (GSPC), Gujarat Power Corporation Limited (GPCL) and Swan Energy Limited (SEL) shall be the shareholders with 34 per cent, 17 per cent and 49 per cent shareholding respectively. SEL shall pay Rs 381 crore as the value of shares for its 49 per cent stake in GPPC, and in turn, GPPC together with its other shareholders have agreed to assign 70 per cent of the CERs (carbon emission receipts) that will be generated from GPPC's upcoming Pipavav project to SEL.

GPPC is in the process of establishing a new 702 mw gas based power project at Pipavav in Gujarat. This project will be eligible for generating CERs (carbon credits) upon its operations, for first ten years of operation. The GPPC project has achieved financial closure and is under implementation. The EPC contract was awarded to BHEL and the scheduled commissioning date of the project is December 2010. GPPC claimed that it has already received necessary approvals, including environment clearance, for expanding the capacity to 1050 mw. Sources indicated that the project will be later scaled up to 3000 Mw and the net investment could be around Rs 20,000 crore.

According to a GPPC statement, "This agreement is a unique financing structure wherein a private sector investor has agreed to invest at premium for promoting public sector power project resulting in reduced green house gas emissions." The company claimed that Swan has agreed to fund equity of GPPC project in view of its CER potential.

GPPC has also initiated the process for signing power purchase agreement (PPA) with state run Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd for 700 Mw power, sources said.

Ernst &Young have been roped in by GPPC as their advisors for the CER registration process The project has received the ‘Host country approval’ and as per the AM0029 methodology of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), it has been estimated that the GPPC project can generate around 1.2 million CERs per year.