Adani Group acquires RInfra's Mumbai power business

The Adani Group's Adani Transmission Ltd (ATL) has acquired Reliance Infrastructure's integrated business of generation, transmission and retail electricity distribution in Mumbai and Maharashtra, and will be known as 'Adani Electricity Mumbai Ltd.' (AEML), an official said here on Wednesday.

The business, acquired from RInfra by ATL after a process of nearly nine months, includes power generation units in Dahanu, power transmission networks in Mumbai and Maharashtra, and retail power distribution setup in Mumbai suburbs.

RInfra and ATL had signed the Definitive Binding Agreement for 100 per cent stake sale of the integrated business of generation, transmission and distribution for Mumbai in December 2017.

The total consideration value for the deal between the two companies was around Rs 18,800 crore.

The RInfra had said it would utilise the proceeds of this transformative transaction entirely to reduce its debt, making it the largest ever debt-reducing exercise by any corporate in the country.

The new business of the Adani Group shall be housed in the AEML, a newly-formed entity and a subsidiary of ATL, serving over three million customers spread across 400 sq. km of Mumbai suburbs, marking its entry into the large scale power distribution sector.

The business operations at AEML shall now function seamlessly with the absorption of around 5,000 existing employees across these three business areas.

"We aspire into electricity distribution in key cities and districts in India in pursuit of the government's vision to enable 'Power for all by 2020'. We are committed to leverage the experience to emerge as a leading utility in electricity, thereby state-of-the-art, reliable, and competitive supply experience to all customers," said Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani.

EML's Managing Director and CEO Anil Sardana, who is also ATL Chairman, said with the 'power of service', ATL will strive to revitalise the customer experience combined with innovative service platforms to improve overall service.

"Our endeavour would be to make this as a benchmark distribution system, both on network management and customer services. The immense knowledge of Mumbai team would also help us in multiplying our presence at other geographies," said Sardana.

ATL owns and operates 35 Bulk Power Grid sub-stations with approximately 19,300 MVA of transformation capacity across the country, making it the the largest private sector Transmission & Electricity Distribution Company in the country.

--IANS

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