PTC India is planning to form a private equity fund for power projects through money raised via a qualified institutional placement of shares, its top official said on Thursday.
The company recently raised 5 billion rupees through qualified institutional placements (QIP) and part of this money will be an anchor for the PE fund, Chairman and Managing Director T N Thakur told Reuters over the telephone.
"We will try to leverage it either through equity syndication or through setting of a fund...most probably we will go with a fund route," he said.
PTC India may pick up about 20-30 percent of equity stake in interested private power projects, who will also sell power through PTC's power trading facilities, he added.
"We get return on equity anyway from the equity investment, but we also get those volumes for trade, which means we will get some more income through margins."
The company is currently assessing "about a dozen" such power project proposals for investment, Thakur added.
COAL ASSETS BUYS
"We have been exploring the possibility of owning some coal assets outside India and hopefully we should be able to close on couple of assets" if the prices are attractive, chairman said.
The company is scouting for coal assets in countries like Indonesia and Australia and had earmarked about $100 million for the purpose since last year, Thakur added.
"We will own the asset, bring that coal, and supply to these projects from which we get power."
POWER TRADING
The company is on the growth path and expects to register good trade volumes in FY10, Thakur said.
"In FY09, our growth (power trading volumes) over the previous period was almost 40 percent...we are on the growth path," said Thakur declining to give any estimate for volume growth expected in FY10.
At 12:36 p.m., shares in the company were trading down 0.28 percent to 88 rupees in a firm Mumbai market.
