GVK to tie up funds for Alpha Coal project by March 2013

GVK Power & Infrastructure Limited, a part of Hyderabad-based GVK Group, on Sunday said that the financial closure for its $10-billion Alpha coal and rail project in Queensland, Australia, was expected sometime during March 2013 as opposed to the original deadline of December 2012.

The financial closure is getting deferred due to delays in receiving necessary environmental clearances from the local authorities, said Sanjay Reddy, vice-chairman, GVK Group.

During last month, GVK had received environmental clearance for the Alpha coal mine project that included constructing a railway line to port from the Queensland province. However, objections were raised by the federal government.

 

Last year, GVK paid $1.26 billion to buy the coal assets and related logistics infrastructure in Australia from Hancock through a group company GVK Coal Developers (Singapore). The Alpha project, which is expected to generate 4,000 jobs at peak, is being run by Hancock Coal in which 79 per cent is owned by GVK and 21 per cent by Gina Rinehart, chairman, Hancock Prospecting Pty Limited.

“The project is likely to get the environment clearance approval from the Australian federal government within a month,” Rinehart said, while expressing her interest in raising the stake from the current 21 per cent.