India Power announced it is setting up and commissioning another power plant of 36 MW solar in Uttarakhand at an investment of Rs 225 crore.
This follows India Power’s successful acquisition of 1,000 MW thermal power plant of Meenakshi Energy, owned by French power giant ENGIE in September 2016. Of the 1,000 MW, 300 MW is already operational and 700 MW is under advance stage of implementation, which will be commissioned during the course of this financial year.
During the same period, the company also announced formation of a joint venture with Uniper Kraftwerke. The joint venture company, India Uniper Power Services, offers a broad range of flexible and customised services and customers can choose from full-service arrangements or select only individual services.
These along with commissioning of 150 MW-unit out of 450 MW at the company’s Haldia plant, lower T&D losses and improving profitability are expected to result in multi-fold growth in India Power’s businesses, maximising shareholders’ value in the process.
The consolidated estimated enterprise/asset value of India Power is now close to Rs 15,000 crore, and with a combined debt of around Rs 6,000 crore the company is now one of the less leveraged power generation and utilities companies in the country.
Commenting on the developments, Hemant Kanoria, chairman, India Power, said, ” The company has been growing its businesses profitably despite the stress in the energy space in recent years. We are now on a high growth trajectory, which will improve our financial performance further and enhance shareholders’ value. The power sector still has its challenges but we clearly see growth prospects.”
For FY 2016-17, India Power recorded profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 37.29 crore. Profit before tax (PBT) improved from Rs 46.55 crore in 2015-16 to Rs 61.96 crore during the last financial year. Gross revenue for 2016-17 was at Rs 726.68 crore compared to 760.99 a year earlier.
The Board of Directors has also appointed Raghav Raj Kanoria as Managing Director of India Power.
Commenting on his appointment, Raghav Raj Kanoria, said, “Our objective will be to strengthen the company’s leadership position in the power sector and create a “lateral thinking” organisation, which will enable us to capitalise on the present acquisition opportunities in India and also introduce technological innovations in order to reduce power costs for the consumers.”
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