Adani, JSW & Tatas bid for stake in GMR’s power plant

NEW DELHI: Adani Power, JSW Energy and Tata Power have submitted bids to acquire a majority stake in GMR Infrastructure’s 1,370-mw power plant in Chhattisgarh. Sources said state-run Neyveli Lignite did not submit its bid for the project. Neyveli had earlier held talks with the lenders for acquiring acontrolling stake in the project.

“Adani Power, Tata Power and JSW Energy have submitted their expressions of interest for acquiring a majority stake in GMR Chhattisgarh Energy. The lenders will check the documents submitted by these companies for technical and financial eligibility and shortlist the qualified bidders,” sources in know of the development said.

A consortium of lenders to the commissioned project led by Axis Bank is looking to divest its stake under the strategic debt restructuring (SDR) process. The consortium of 15 lenders including State Bank of India, Bank of India, Canara Bank, Bank of Baroda and HDFC in February last year converted the plant’s ?2,992 crore debt into equity as part of the SDR plan for change in management.

The banks own over a 52.4% stake in the plant and last week sought interest from global and domestic players to offload equity.

The 2x685 MW coal-based power plant achieved commercial operations in March 2017. The project is stranded as it does not have power purchase agreements with state power distribution utilities, leading to cost overruns and lenders invoking SDR. .

Emails sent to Adani Power, JSW Energy and Tata Power did not elicit any response.

GMR’s Chhattisgarh project has attached coal blocks — the Talabira-I mine in Odisha and the Ganeshpur coal block in Jharkhand. However, the company had in mid-2017 approached the Delhi High Court seeking quashing of the government decision to cap fixed costs or permission to surrender the Talabira block without penalties. It filed a consequential petition after Monnet Ispat & Energy and Mandakini Exploration & Mining surrendered the non-producing mines they had won, following a favourable order from the court on their claim that they were not aware of the government’s plan on fixed costs at the time of bidding.

The lenders’ consortium in February last year converted part of the total debt of Rs 8,800 crore to own 52.4% of the power plant while the balance 47.6% remains with GMR.