4 IPOs, 2 FPOs in power ministry's five-year monetisation pipeline

Ministry prepares a Rs 80,000 cr plan for NMP 2.0

In the next five years, mega public sector enterprises (PSEs) of the power sector would hit the market to raise money through public listing, follow-on public offering (FPO), and refinancing routes. The Union Ministry of Power has drafted an asset monetisation plan totalling up to ₹80,000 crore as part of the Centre’s flagship National Monetisation Plan (NMP) 2.0 to run from financial year 2025-26 (FY26) to FY30.

  The ministry’s NMP has proposed listing three of its PSEs — hydropower companies THDC and NEEPCO, and SGEL, the green energy arm of another hydropower company SJVN.  

The ministry has estimated an offering of ₹1,000 crore each for THDC and NEEPCO, and ₹2,000 crore for SGEL, according to the proposed plan. NTPC currently has the controlling stake in THDC and NEEPCO. Business Standard has reviewed a copy of the proposal. Queries sent to the power ministry remained unanswered until the time of going to press.

 

NMP 2.0 has also proposed listing of Hindustan Urvarak & Rasayan Limited (HURL) — a joint venture of NTPC, Coal India Ltd, and Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL), with equal equity participation of 29.67 per cent each. According to the plan documents, this would be under NTPC’s monetisation target. 

As part of the NMP, the government has proposed equity disinvestment for SJVN in thermal power company STPL, which was formed in 2007 and operates Buxar thermal power plant in Bihar. 

Buoyed up by the successful listing of NTPC Green Energy Ltd (NGEL), the green energy arm of thermal power giant NTPC Ltd, which happened last year, the ministry is hopeful of similar positive reaction to the other offers as well, officials indicated. NGEL was listed on the bourses in November last year, and it raised ₹10,000 crore through its IPO. The issue was subscribed 2.42 times. 

The monetisation plan also includes two FPOs for NGEL, estimated at ₹9,000 crore and ₹15,000 crore. 

Out of the proposed ₹80,000 crore plan, the biggest chunk of up to ₹34,000 crore would be raised by Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL), which would involve securitisation of future cash flows of its commissioned projects. 

The central transmission utility, which is also the largest power transmission company in the county, launched its first Infrastructure Investment Trust (InvIT) PGInvIT in 2022 under NMP 1.0 to monetise its commissioned projects. The IPO of PGInvIT consisted of a fresh issue of ₹4,993 crore and an offer for sale of ₹2,741 crore at the upper end, aggregating to the total offer size of ₹7,734 crore. 

Hydropower giant NHPC Ltd would also be looking at similar routes for its commissioned projects for raising money. This could include some of its marquee hydroelectric projects such as Teesta in Sikkim, Parbati and Chamera in Himachal Pradesh, and Subansari in Arunachal Pradesh. 

For NMP 1.0, the power ministry achieved 58 per cent of its targeted monetisation plan of ₹85,032 crore during FY21-FY25.

 

 

PSU	Monetisation target (FY26-FY30)	Key task
	in Rs crore
PGCIL	33,500	More assets in PGInvIT
NTPC	27,000	FPOs for NGEL
NHPC	10,000	Securitisation of commissioned projects
SJVN	7,500	IPO of SGEL
THDC	1,000	IPO
NEEPCO	1,000	IPO
HRUL	3,000	IPO