The Hindu Business Line : PTC plans to float $500 m power fund; eyes coal assets abroad

New Delhi, June 8 Power trading major PTC India Ltd on Monday said it plans to establish a $500-million fund this fiscal year to finance power projects in the country.

“We will use the Rs 500 crore ($105 million) we raised (in a sale of company shares last month) to start the fund… We could look at bringing in more investors and syndicate more funds,” Mr T.N. Thakur, PTC’s Chairman and Managing Director, told reporters here. “Several big global financial institutions have been talking to us about this,” he added, without naming any firms.

The fund will buy equity in proposed Indian power projects, and PTC expects to market the power from these stations, Mr Thakur said.

The announcement of the proposed fund comes in the wake of the credit crunch being faced by a bevy of new generation projects on the anvil. “That’s why we raised the money. Some projects, I which PTC has an interest, were slowing down because there were gaps in the equity financing,” he said.

Taking on more

PTC, which is the country’s largest power trading firm, saw trading volume rise nearly 40 per cent in the financial year ended March 31. It expects volumes to grow steadily over the next few years as more generation capacity comes online and a greater amount of spare electricity is available for trading, Mr Thakur said.

PTC also plans to enter into more coal-supply agreements with power plants in which it acquires stakes. “We already have requests from about 5,000 MW of power plants to tie up fuel supplies. That could take nearly 15 million tonnes coal a year,” Mr Thakur said. The company is waiting to acquire overseas coal mines before getting into supply agreements with power plants.

“We are looking at assets that can give us around 15 million tonnes coal a year. We have identified some (undeveloped) mines in Australia and Indonesia, but we’re still negotiating,” he said.

He said that whether the company would acquire the mines on its own or through its wholly-owned subsidiary PTC Energy Ltd would be decided later.

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