E-Paper
Adani to buy Reliance Infra’s transmission assets for ₹2,000 cr
Anil Ambani led-Reliance Infrastructure (RInfra) on Wednesday announced a deal to sell its power transmission assets to Gautam Adani’s Adani Transmission.
Anil Ambani led-Reliance Infrastructure (RInfra) on Wednesday announced a deal to sell its power transmission assets to Gautam Adani’s Adani Transmission.
The two companies did not disclose the size of the deal. However, sources in the know of the development, said the deal is worth ₹2,000 crore, and the money will be used by RInfra to service its debt, which currently stands at around ₹21,000 crore.
“We are going ahead with our strategic plan to monetise RInfra’s non-core assets. The sale of our cement and transmission projects have been announced, while the Mumbai power assets and our 11 toll roads are in the process of being monetised,” RInfra CEO, Lalit Jalan told HT.
RInfra’s transmission projects have an asset base of ₹7,000 crore.
The company will sell its entire holding in three transmission assets—Western Region System Strengthening Scheme (WRSSS) B and WRSSS C projects located in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, and Parbati Koldam Transmission Co Ltd (PKTCL) located in Himachal Pradesh and Punjab. While RInfra owns 100% equity in the first two projects, it holds 74% in PKTCL in JV with PGCIL.
All three transmission projects are completed and revenue generating; and the entire sale proceeds will be used for debt reduction, Reliance Infrastructure said in a statement
RInfra has already completed monetisation of its cement business and is in advanced stage of doing the same for roads and Mumbai power businesses.
The company’s consolidated debt stands at around Rs 21000 crore after the sale of its cement assets to Birla Corporation for Rs 4800 crore. The company has signed a non-binding deal to sell 49% in its Mumbai power business to the Canadian pension fund Public Sector Pension Investment Board, or PSP Investments. That deal has not yet fructified.
Sources close to the company said that talks are on with an overseas investor for selling their road projects. The source further added that after the selling of the power and road assets, RInfra is looking at becoming debt-free.
“Our future growth pillars are power distribution and generation; construction, defence and operation and maintenance of infrastructure projects,” Jalan told HT.
“The proposed Transaction is subject to due diligence, definitive documentation, applicable regulatory approvals and certain other conditions. Further announcements will be made at an appropriate stage,” a statement from RInfra said.
SBI Capital Markets Ltd acted as financial advisors to RInfra for this transaction.
