Kolkata-based mining and minerals group Atha plans to exit their clean energy business by selling 365 MW assets spread across seven states. The proposed deal is likely to value the assets at an enterprise value of Rs2000 crore, said multiple people aware of the development.
Avendus Capital is advising Atha Group on the sale process. Feelers were sent to players such as O2 Power, Ayana Power, Edelweiss Infrastructure and a handful of private equity investors.
Atha has 200 MW assets in Tamil Nadu, 15 MW in Telangana, 20 MW in Karnataka, 50 MW in Maharashtra and the rest is in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. The bids are expected to be in by 25 of this month, said one among the sources.
“As part of the continued process of evaluation of various businesses, we have appointed Avendus to look for suitable options regarding our renewable energy portfolio,” said Atha spokesperson. But, at this juncture, we would not be in position to divulge anything further on the matter, he added.
In 2017, Atha Group companies – Narbheram Vishram and NVR Energy had won the bid to supply 200MW of solar power to Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO), out of the 2000 MW capacity sought to be developed by TANGEDCO.
The 60-year old Atha Group is diversified into iron-ore mining, power & steel and Calcined petroleum coke, besides renewable energy.
energy platform Ayana Renewable Power is backed by UK’s CDC Group, National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) and EverSource Capital. O2 Power is backed by Singapore-government owned Temasek and Swedish private equity company EQT Infrastructure.
Several conventional power producers have been selling a large portfolio of assets in the last few years. Major buyers are the marquee private equity funds -backed renewable platforms.
On Wednesday, Larsen & Toubro had sold its 99 mw run-of-the-river hydroelectric power plant in Uttarakhand to ReNew Power for Rs 985 crore. With a capacity of 10GW, Renew Power is backed by Goldman Sachs, CPP Investments, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and JERA. In April, Azure Power had sold its non-core solar rooftop portfolio to Radiance Renewables, backed by Eversource Capital, for Rs 536 crore.
Solar had sold 400 MW assets to PE fund Actis and 100 MW assets to Malaysia’s state-run
and gas company, Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) last year.
India has attracted investments to the tune of Rs 1.32 lakh crore in the renewable energy sector in the past three years since 2017. At present, India’s installed renewable energy capacity is about 95 GW including 40.5 GW of solar power.
India’s renewable energy (RE) capacity addition is expected to improve to 10.5 GW to 11 GW in financial year 2021-22 led by a strong project pipeline of about 38 GW, according to ratings agency ICRA.
The RE sector is expected to witness
Rs 3.5 trillion over the next four years, increasing the share of RE capacity to 34 per cent of the overall installed capacity by March 2025 from 25 per cent as of March 2021 led by the solar power segment, the report added. There was a slowdown in RE capacity addition to 7.4 GW in FY21 from 8.7 GW in FY20 amid the execution headwinds due to Covid-19.
India added a total solar and wind power capacity of only 4,908 megawatt (MW) in 2020, the lowest in the past five years, according to Bridge to India. In 2015, the government had declared an ambitious target of 175 GW from renewables by 2022.
