Lanco Infratech may divest 24% in Anpara-C plant
Lanco Infratech may divest 24% in Anpara-C plant
Lanco Infratech Ltd, the Hyderabad-based infrastructure company, is considering a proposal to divest up to 24% of its holding in a 1,000MW power plant under construction in an effort to raise money for the project.
On Thursday, Lanco announced that International Finance Corp., the private sector arm of the World Bank, was picking up a 5.84% stake in its subsidiary Lanco Amarkantak Power Pvt. Ltd for $8 million (Rs32.8 crore).
The subsidiary is building a 600MW coal-based power plant in Chattisgarh at a cost of Rs2,600 crore.
Lanco needs money to fund its power projects—the company has 518MW of operating capacity but is creating another 3,200MW, directly and through subsidiaries.
Lanco holds a 75.16% stake in Lanco Amarkantak. And DEG, a private-sector arm of German bank KFW, holds a 9% stake in the company.
The Lanco Amarkantak divestment is the company’s first project in which IFC and DEG are equity partners, said L. Madhusudhan Rao, chairman, Lanco Group, and he added that this “paved the way for more such partnerships in other projects of Lanco."
Rao said that the group was considering a proposal to “divest holding in Lanco Anpara Power, which is executing a 1,000MW coal-based project at Anpara in Uttar Pradesh at an investment of Rs3,500 crore." Because there are several power projects in Anpara, this one is called the Anpara-C project.
The Anpara-C project requires an investment of Rs3,500 crore, of which Rs2,800 crore is debt and Rs700 crore is equity. Rao said that he was looking to “divest 24% to raise a minimum of Rs168 crore."
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