Lanco to acquire coal mines in Indonesia

The Hyderabad-based Lanco group is planning to acquire coal mines in Indonesia for meeting the requirements of its power projects.

The group's international consultants have already shortlisted some of the mines in this regard, group chairman, L Madhusudhan Rao, told Business Standard.

Rao said that the group, which recently entered the business of power trading, had targeted to have an installed capacity of 10,000 Mw of gas, coal and hydel power projects spread across the country by 2015.

Currently, the group is producing 509 Mw of power through five power projects. These include 368 mw gas-based Lanco Kondapalli Power Private Limited, 120 Mw combined cycle ABAN Power Company Limited, a 3-Mw wind power project, and two biomass-based power projects of 12 Mw and 6 Mw.

This apart, the company is setting up Lanco Amarkantak Power Private Limited, a 1,200-Mw coal-based power project, and 800 Mw hydel power projects in Sikkim and Himachal Pradesh. "By 2010, we will have an installed capacity of 2,750 Mw," Rao said, adding that the group was emerging as the country's largest producer of power in the private sector.

The Lanco group has also embarked upon a restructuring exercise to bring all the group companies, except Lanco Industries and Lanco Global Systems, under the fold of Lanco Infratech Limited (LIL).

According to Rao, Lanco Infratech hereafter will be the holding company for the group's entire power and infrastructure business. Incorporated in 1993, Lanco Infratech is currently constructing 20 million square feet IT parks, residential and commercial complexes. Of this, over 18.5 million square feet of built-up area is coming up near Hyderabad.

He said that the group's target was to have 50 million sft of residential and commercial property across the country in the next five years. The group was expecting revenues to the tune of Rs 15,000 crore from its realty division five years down the line.

Rao said that Lanco would rope in an international partner to bid for the Chennai and Kolkata airports modernisation projects. At present, it was focusing on procuring EPC contracts.