Indian wind turbine maker Suzlon and Dilip Sanghvi, the promoter of Mumbai-based pharmaceuticals multinational Sun Pharma, have formed an equal-stakes joint venture to set up wind-cum-solar projects in the country.
The JV will be setting up the hybrid farms in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat with a total capacity of 450 MW. The work on the projects will start by August, mydigitalfc.com has reported.
Sanghvi will finance the projects — total investment of Rs 400 crore — and Suzlon will develop them, according to the business news portal.
In February, Sanghvi had acquired 23 per cent stake in Suzlon for Rs 1,800 crore. Suzlon has a total of 8,000 MW of installed capacity in India and has more than 7 per cent market share. The company operates a 1,000 megawatt wind farm (claimed to be the largest in India) at Kutch and Jaisalmer.
The company recently launched its wind turbine model S111, which is specifically designed for application in hybrid towers. The model is also effective in sub-optimal wind sites. S111s are likely to be used in the proposed project, too, according to the report.
In recent times Suzlon had been selling its assets to pare debt which amounted to more than Rs 16,500 crore. It completed sale of its European subsidiary Senvion last week for Rs 7,200 crore.
The company has stated that it will be using Rs 5,000 crore of the proceeds of the sale to reduce debt and the remaining Rs 2,000 crore for expansion and other corporate purposes.
Further, Suzlon will reduce another Rs 3,500 crore of debt by July, converting its Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds to equity. The amount includes Rs 885 crore that has already been converted.
In sum, the debt Suzlon had accrued is expected to be reduced to Rs 8,000 crore. Of this figure about Rs 4,000 crore is dollar-denominated and at the lower rate of interest of six per cent and the rest is working capital debt.
Ajith Kumar S