No formal communication on govt's NHPC stake sale: NTPC

NTPC has not received any formal communication yet on government's reported plans to sell its stake in hydropower producer NHPC to the state-run power utility to meet its disinvestment target for this fiscal year.

"Till now there is no formal communication from the government (on the issue)," said Gurdpeep Singh, chairman and managing director, NTPC.

He, however, added that "any deal is a good deal if it is at the right price," indicating that the power utility will be open to acquire its hydropower peer if the government firms up its plans.

According to reports in a section of media, the government is discussing a plan to sell it stake in NHPC to NTPC, which if goes through, will bring consolidation in the state-run energy firms besides helping it stick to the budget gap target.

NTPC reported 1.14 per cent decline in standalone net profit to Rs 2,588.14 crore for the quarter ended June, due to higher depreciation, borrowing cost and expenditure on fuel.

The company's total revenues in the quarter, however, rose 11 per cent to Rs 22,839.98 crore, from Rs 20,541.93 crore in the year-ago period.

The power giant also recorded its highest quarterly power generation of 69.2 billion units (BU) in the April to June period, a 7.45 per cent rise over the year-ago period.

On the company's borrowing plans for FY19, Singh said that the total planned capex will be to the tune of Rs 23,000 crore.

"Of this, 30 per cent will come through internal accruals and the rest will be raised from the market,"he said.

On whether the company was looking to acquire some of the stressed assets in the power sector, Singh said, "There are around 10,000-12,000 MW of good assets and there is also an equal amount of power which are not good assets. So, we should be very careful about which assets to look at and which to ignore."