Indiabulls Power to bid for UMPPs

Indiabulls Power, which is developing over 6,650 Mw from five thermal power projects by 2013, is planning to also bid for ultra mega power projects (UMPPs), besides foraying into renewable energy to grow as a major electricity producer. The company will bid for some of the coming UMPPs, after evaluating dedicated availability of coal and the market conditions, said Ranjit Gupta, chief executive officer, and Murali Subramanian, chief operating officer.

India plans to develop about a dozen 4,000-plus Mw UMPPs to solve the severe power shortage. Of the four UMPPs awarded through competitive bidding so far, Reliance Power bagged three – Sasan, Krishnapatanam and Tilaiya, while Tata Power got the Mundra UMPP. Indiabulls had not bid for any of these.

The officials declined to reveal more details, citing regulatory restrictions on making forward-looking statements related to the company's initial public offer, which will kick off from October 12 with a price band of Rs 40-45. "Now our focus is to execute the current projects under development. In future, we plan to grow in thermal and renewable energy sources like hydro, wind, solar and biomass projects," said Gupta.

The company is already developing four medium-sized hydropower projects in Arunachal Pradesh aggregating to 167 Mw. It is also setting up the coal-fired 1,320 Mw Amravati Phase-I project and a 1,335 Mw project at Nashik, both in Maharashtra, the 1,320 Mw Bhaiyathan project in Chhattisgarh and the second phase of the Amravati project, with another 1,320 Mq, all scheduled to be commissioned before 2013.

Besides, it has agreements with the governments of Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh to set up power projects. It is evaluating options to set up a 1,320 Mw thermal project in Jharkhand and a 2,640 Mw one in MP. Gagan Banga, chief executive officer of Indiabulls Financial Services and group spokesperson, said the group has so far infused close to Rs 2,300 crore as equity for the projects.

The first phase of Amaravati requires an investment of Rs 6,888 crore and it has tied up Rs 5,166 crore as debt funding from banks. The company will infuse Rs 775 crore from the IPO proceeds to fund the equity portion. The Rs 6,048 crore Nashik project has received a sanction letter from Axis Bank to underwrite term loans of Rs 3,400 crore and another Rs 300 crore has been sanctioned by Union Bank of India.