Chennai-based Orient Green Power Company, the public listed renewable energy firm of the Shriram Group, has decided to divest 26 per cent stake in three subsidiaries separately, as per a stock market disclosure.
The board of directors of the company in its meeting on Monday approved divestment of 26 per cent stake in the wholly owned subsidiaries Global Powertech Equipments Ltd, Shriram Powergen Ltd and Shriram Non-Conventional Energy Ltd. The firm did not disclose the name of firms who would buy the stake nor the amount it would raise through the deal.
According to the filing, the decision is taken to enable the subsidiaries to shift to a group-captive model, which entails participation of not less than 26 per cent of the shareholding in the subsidiaries by captive consumers of the respective units.
Earlier, all the three firms had power purchase agreements (PPA) with Tamil Nadu Electricity Board but have now come out of the agreement and are selling electricity to other parties.
In another development, the firm has approved the resignation of P Krishnakumar, managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO) of the company and appointed S Venkatachalam as MD with effect from September 23, 2013.
However, Krishnakumar would continue to be a director of Orient Green Power.
Established in 2006 as a JV between Shriram EPC and Bessemer Venture Partners, Orient Green Power develops renewable energy power plants based on biomass, bio gas, wind energy and small hydel projects. Both the JV partners had put $10 million each to start the venture.
The firm started generating power in April 2008 after it acquired the first biomass plant in Kotputli, Rajasthan. It went public three years ago.
As on December 2012, its portfolio of operating projects included 466.5 MW of aggregate installed capacity, which comprises 406 MW of wind energy projects and 60.5 MW of biomass projects. It has plans to increase this to over 1,000 MW.
In July 2012, Orient Green Power had exited from its Sri Lanka-based subsidiary Powergen Lanka by selling 90 per cent stake to Windforce Pvt Ltd, Colombo.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)
