The National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) has emerged as the top bidder to acquire about 617 megawatt worth of assets of Mahindra Susten, a solar energy EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) platform owned by the Mahindra group, a media report said.
NIIF has outbid Brookfield Asset Management Inc., KKR, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), Actis and Edelweiss Infra, The Economic Times said citing two people aware of the development.
NIIF has offered Rs 3,500 crore ($476 million) in enterprise value, with an equity value component of Rs 1,180 crore ($160 million) for the assets, the people said.
In February, Mahindra announced the sale of three of its subsidiaries -- Cleansolar Renewable Energy Private Limited, Divine Solren Private Limited, and Neo Solren Private Limited (NSPL) -- to CLP India for Rs 340 crore.
In another development, the Bandhan Bank promoter has stepped up efforts to foray into insurance.
Bandhan Financial Holdings has started talks with two insurance firms even as it has bid for Reliance Capital’s 51% stake in Reliance Nippon Life Insurance, The Economic Times report said.
It has signed non-disclosure agreements with the two firms, people familiar with the matter said.
Also, billionaire Anil Agarwal’s London-based Vedanta Resources Plc has initiated talks with a clutch of banks to raise up to $8 billion (Rs 58,812 crore) through a mix of debt and equity to be used for the acquisition of state-run Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd (BPCL), a Mint report said citing two people directly aware of the matter.
Last month, the mining conglomerate showed preliminary interest in buying the government’s 53% stake in BPCL.
Buying up to 75% stake in BPCL may cost Vedanta up to Rs 97,600 crore ($13.3 billion).
“Vedanta is keen to onboard equity partner(s) to jointly acquire BPCL and has initiated discussions with several global private equity funds to jointly bid for the firm,” said one of the persons.