Hindustan Times ST (Jaipur)

IL&FS plans bond issue to refinance ₹6,000cr debt

- Swaraj Singh Dhanjal and Sneh Sushmit swaraj.d@livemint.com

Any solar module price increase will impact the internal rate of return (IRR) with the power purchase agreements (PPAs) already being inked. Module prices account for 60% of a solar power project’s total cost and are around $0.37 per watt.

The $3-billion Inox Group in March announced the sale of its operating wind power farm assets to Leap Green Energy Pvt Ltd. Also, Russia’s Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corp is exploring an investment in Inox Group’s wind turbine manufactur­ing business with a 1,600-MW capacity.

While Mytrah Energy (India) Ltd, Green Infra Ltd, and global private equity fund Actis Llp’s platform Ostro Kutch Wind Pvt. Ltd were the others who bid ₹3.46 per kWh to win the wind energy contracts, SBG Cleantech Ltd bid ₹2.45 per kWh to develop 300MW capacity at Bhadla.

“If the deals fructify the acquirer will complete the projects,” said another person aware of the plans requesting anonymity.

Queries emailed to the spokespers­ons of Acme Group, Inox Group and the ministry of new and renewable energy on Wednesday remained unanswered till press time.

Any deal if concluded will have to meet the tender bid conditions.

“This has not come to our knowledge. Bid guidelines have got explicit timelines which have to be met,” said a person involved in devising and running India’s solar park bid process.

Infrastruc­ture Leasing and Financial Services Ltd (IL&FS) plans to hit the domestic bond market to refinance almost ₹6,000 crore (about $940 million) of debt, said a senior executive.

The debt was taken to finance the 9.2km Chenani-Nashri project in Jammu and Kashmir— India’s longest road tunnel.

Overall, IL&FS plans to refinance debt to the tune of ₹15,000 crore this financial year, said Ramesh C Bawa, managing director and CEO at IL&FS Financial Services Ltd. The refinancin­g plan envisages tapping alternativ­e sources including green bonds and infrastruc­ture investment trusts (InvITs) and rupee-denominate­d overseas loans. Green bonds are sold to fund environmen­t-friendly businesses or assets.

Last year, IL&FS refinanced debt worth ₹5,300 crore for its various assets such as roads and wind energy projects.

According to IL&FS’s annual report for 2015-16, the group had consolidat­ed long-term borrowings of ₹54,665.1 crore and interest outgo of ₹5,497.9 crore.

The tunnel on the JammuSrina­gar highway connects Chenani in Udhampur district with Nashri in Ramban district, reducing the travel distance from 41km to 10.9km.

 ?? REUTERS/FILE ?? The government has set up an ambitious clean energy target of 175GW by 2022
REUTERS/FILE The government has set up an ambitious clean energy target of 175GW by 2022

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