Bses Plans Rs 1000 Crore Investments In Three Years

BSES, which has projected a 10 per cent topline and bottomline growth in the current financial year, expects to be in six more states for distribution by 2007.

Currently, the company has presence in Mumbai and Orissa, while it has bid for Kanpur and is weighing opportunities in Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Karnataka.

BSES chairman and managing director R V Shahi said, "The sale of electricity will increase in this period by around five-six per cent."

He was speaking to newspersons after the company's annual general meeting in the city on Thursday.

Shahi said, "Eventually the topline growth will also depend on the performance of the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) and contract division. Sometimes power projects fail to achieve financial closure and this in turn affects the EPC business."

Shahi also said that by 2007 the company, along with its power subsidiaries, will have a generation capacity of 5,000 mw. In the telecom business, BSES will invest Rs 250 crore over the next two years through its subsidiary BSES Telecom.

He said the added advantage of the distribution business is that it can be leveraged to lay optic fibre lines.

On shareholders' queries, Shahi said that Reliance Industries had presented the company with three options after the closure of the open offer.

First, they wanted board representation, secondly management participation and finally management control. "We are examining all the three options and a decision will be taken at the BSES board meeting in the first week of September."

Reliance is currently the single-largest shareholder in BSES with a 26.6 per cent stake. Financial institutions, which hold key to the BSES board's decision, have a combined stake of 35 per cent in the company.

He also said that the dispute with Tata Electric Companies (TEC) over standby charges was only Rs 30 crore and not Rs 181 crore as claimed by TEC. In order to cough up the additional Rs 30 crore, the company will have to hike tariffs and seek permission of the Maharashtra Electric Regulatory Commission.