PTC India Ltd will soon float an energy fund to finance power projects in the country, the company's chairman and managing director Tantra Narayan Thakur said on Thursday.
“We have an in-principle decision to float an energy fund under the PTC's investment arm PTC Financial Services. We are in talks with the banks and financial institutions to tie up debt for the fund,” Thakur said.
He declined to reveal details like the corpus of the fund and the date of commencement.
PTC Financial Services is also looking at raising debt for its project financing operations.
“So far we have been only taking equity in power projects against the investments. But since the RBI guidelines prevent us from investing more than 20% of our net worth by way of equity in a single project, we are talking to banks and financial institutions to syndicate debt to invest in such projects,” Thakur said.
PTC India floated an investment arm called PTC Financial Services Ltd about six months back to invest in power projects. Australia's Macquarie group and US-based Goldman Sachs have 20% equity stake each in the company.
The company has invested 37% by way of equity in the integrated power project comprising a wind farm, solar panels and Jatropha cultivation in Satara in Maharashtra, and 11% in a hydropower project in Teesta in Sikkim.
The company has recently commissioned a wind farm to generate 6 megawatt of energy. He said the company plans to increase its investment in wind power generation as and when opportunities arise.
Thakur said PTC India has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoUs) to trade 23,000 megawatt of electricity. Signing of MoUs is the first step towards trading power from a power generation project.
Source: Sify