Gayatri Energy Ventures Pvt Ltd (GEVPL), a wholly owned subsidiary of IL&FS private equity-backed infrastructure firm Gayatri Projects, is raising Rs 250 crore ($57 million) from IFCI Ltd through issue of compulsory convertible debentures. The firm did not disclose the quantum of the stake that IFCI would pick post conversion.
The money is expected to be used for bankrolling proposed investments, announced by GEVPL in the energy domain.
Gayatri Projects scrip was up 1.25 per cent and was quoting at Rs 222 in early morning trade at BSE on Tuesday.
Gayatri Projects, in which private equity firm ChrysCapital’s chief Ashish Dhawan also has his private investment, had said in January that it was planning to invest up to Rs 1,000 crore in NCC Power Projects (a wholly owned power generation subsidiary of Blackstone-backed Nagarjuna Construction) or its associates/subsidiaries through GEVPL, besides raising around Rs 400 crore through a rights issue to build its resources.
At present, NCC Power Projects is developing a thermal power unit with capacity of 2,640 MW in Andhra Pradesh. Gayatri Projects is already a partner of NCC Power Projects Ltd in Nelcast Energy, formerly an associate company of iron castings firm Nelcast Ltd, which is developing a 1,320 MW thermal power utility at Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.
Earlier this year, NCC Power Projects had acquired 55 per cent in Nelcast Energy in a deal pegged around Rs 150 crore. Gayatri Projects owns the balance 45 per cent, making it a joint venture power firm.
Gayatri Projects had also raised Rs 364 crore as the first tranche of a bigger commitment of Rs 1,042 crore for selling 49 per cent in a separate power JV, Thermal Powertech Corporation India Ltd, from Singapore-based infrastructure group Sembcorp Industries. This JV seeks to build, own and operate a 1,320 MW coal-fired power unit at Krishnapatnam in Nellore, Andhra Pradesh.
For IFCI, this will be one of its biggest single-company exposures in equity or quasi-equity form. According to public information on the value of the shares held by IFCI in any single public-listed firm, at best, goes up to Rs 50-65 crore. Its largest equity exposures are in firms such as Murli Industries, Alok Industries and Videocon Industries. And one of its portfolio firm MCX is in the process of going public.
Its venture capital/private equity arm IFCI VC had recently invested $2.08 million in Lokesh Machines Ltd, a Hyderabad-based small-sized machine tools maker. This was its third deal since January, 2011. In March, it had disclosed investments in Shakti Pumps India Ltd, another small-sized public company, through issue of shares and optionally convertible debentures. In January, IFCI VC said that it was picking up 10 per cent stake in Ganesh Polytex, a small-sized public-listed firm that recycles consumer PET bottle waste into polyester staple fibre, for about Rs 13.5 crore ($2.9 million).
