RInfra completes sale of Mumbai power business to Adani Group

Reliance Infrastructure (RInfra) on Wednesday said that it has completed the Rs 18,800-crore sale of its Mumbai integrated distribution business to Adani Transmission (ATL), which will help RInfra reduce its debt by nearly two-thirds to Rs 7,500 crore.

At a media briefing here following a board meeting to approve the transfer of the Mumbai power business, RInfra Chairman Anil Ambani announced the closure of the deal which had been signed in December last year.

"For Reliance Infrastructure, this is truly a transformative transaction. The company's gross debt will be reduced from about Rs 22,000 crore to only Rs 7,500 crore, representing a steep debt reduction of 65 per cent in a single transaction," he said.

In the past eight months, the sale has received regulatory approvals from the Competition Commission of India, shareholders of the company and the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission.

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.

Reliance Energy, operating the Mumbai power business, supplies to nearly three million residential, industrial and commercial consumers in the city suburbs covering an area of 400 sq km. It caters to a peak demand of over 1,800 MW, with annual revenues of Rs 7,500 crore with stable cash flows, the company had said.

Speaking of the company's engineering and construction business, Ambani said that some of the showpiece projects in Rinfra's order book include the Rs 7,000-crore Versova-Bandra Sealink, Mumbai Metro Line 4, Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project in Tamil Nadu and the integrated LNG Terminal and power project in Bangladesh.

--IANS

bc/nir