CESC to focus more on power distribution business

The RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group's flagship company CESC Ltd will be focusing on winning more distribution franchise, a top company official said on Friday.

Recently, the power firm won a power distribution franchisee for supply of electricity to Bikaner in Rajasthan in a very fiercely fought bid. Bikaner became the fifth city for power distribution for the company.

"Distribution is going to be an area of focus for us. And we will look more aggressive in distribution as we go along. And we think this is the right model for us to grow. We will go for more and more distribution franchisee as we go along," said company's Chairman Sanjiv Goenka.

The power utility firm on Friday reported a 4.8 per cent increase in its standalone net profit to Rs 152 crore in the quarter ended December 31, 2016 as compared to Rs 145 crore in the same period last year.

According to Goenka, a 94 MW capacity of wind power would come to company's generation in the next four-to-five weeks.

"Total investment is about Rs 600 crore. It will take our total renewable capacity to 207 MW," he said.

The company invested Rs 1,400 crore in renewable energy sources in the last two years, he said.

Commenting on the possible restructuring of the company, he said, "Various things have been examined, nothing has come to the board yet. There are consultants who are reviewing this whole unbundling (restructuring) exercise and hopefully they will be presented to the board shortly. But the board did not consider it today (Friday)."

--IANS

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