(LiveMint)
PTC India Ltd has initiated a formal process to find a strategic investor for its wind power business, two people aware of the development said, adding the country’s largest electricity trader has already reached out to various investors. PTC India’s subsidiary, PTC Energy Ltd, has around 290 megawatts (MW) of wind assets across Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
“PTC India Ltd recently appointed KPMG to advise it on various fund-raising options and they have launched a formal process for the same. The process is most likely to see PTC sell a major stake in the wind power business to a strategic investor that can bring in more capital to grow it, or it could also see a complete sale of the 290MW of assets,” said the first of the two persons cited above. These assets could fetch a valuation of around ₹2,000 crore, he said, requesting anonymity as he is not authorized to speak to reporters.
PTC’s wind energy assets are from the feed-in-tariff regime and thus, their tariffs are higher than the current prices at which companies are bidding for projects, which will make them attractive for investors, he added. India’s wind sector has transitioned from a feed-in tariff regime, which ensures a fixed price for wind power producers, to tariff-based competitive auctions. Access to low-cost finance is a key competitive advantage in an auction-based system.
