Singapore’s Temasek is teaming up with Swedish private equity group EQT to launch a platform for India, O2 Power, that will build wind and solar farms, people in the know told The Economic Times, adding that the operating management team will consist of four senior executives from ReNew Power, led by Parag Sharma.
Temasek and EQT will have initial equity commitment of $500 million (Rs 3,544 crore at current exchange rate) and the company will raise leverage to fund its greenfield and brownfield ground-mounted projects in wind and solar electricity, the report said.
The initial capital commitment is expected to help the platform scale up to a capacity of 3,000 megawatts over the next five years. To begin with, the platform will bid for large central government auctions of NTPC and Solar Energy Corporation, the report added.
Meanwhile, The Economic Times also said that Adani Properties has moved the Bombay High Court as it wants the deadline for closing the proposed acquisition of Bidvest Group’s stake in GVK-controlled Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) to be extended to February 2020.
On 22 February, Adani Group had submitted a formal offer to pick up a 23.5% stake in MIAL from South Africa’s Bidvest Group and Airports Company South Africa. A few days later, GVK exercised its right of first refusal to buy 13.5% stake from Bidvest for Rs 1,247.40 crore ($175 million).
Bidvest agreed in April to sell stake to Adani Properties by September 30 for Rs 1,235 crore. In September, Adani Properties approached a court to restrain Bidvest from selling its stake to any other party.
Adani’s counsel, Darius Khambata, said, “GVK has failed to purchase the shares from Bidvest and hence there is nothing that can stop Bidvest to sell those shares to us.”
Countering this, Ravi Kadam, counsel for GVK, argued that the company had deposited the money in an escrow account on October 30. “This is just an attempt by the petitioner (Adani Properties) to cut short my right of first refusal. The agreement between Adani and Bidvest clearly says that their right will kick in only if I fail to perform,” Kadam said.
In another development, Edelweiss group has emerged as the highest bidder for three road assets of debt-laden Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS), The Economic Times said.
The assets are the Jorabat Shillong Expressway with a debt of Rs 1,406 crore, the Jharkhand Infrastructure Implementation Co with a debt of Rs 430 crore, and the Hazaribagh Ranchi Expressway Ltd with a debt of Rs 954 crore.
Two of the three projects are amber companies, meaning they can meet only operational payments and senior secured debt obligations over the coming 12 months.