Abu Dhabi National Energy Co. (TAQA) and partners will pay $1.6 billion in cash and assumed debt to buy two hydroelectric power plants in India from Jaiprakash Power Ventures Ltd. (JPVL) in a deal expected to close this year.
The state-controlled utility known as Taqa will manage and operate the facilities, it said in an e-mailed statement today. The assets have an enterprise value of $1.6 billion, including a $616 million cash payment and assumed project finance debt, a company spokesman said.
Taqa has stakes in businesses generating power and producing crude oil and natural gas in the Middle East, the North Sea, India and North America. It added oilfield operations in northern Iraq last year and bought U.K. crude deposits from BP Plc. The deal announced today will make it the largest operator of hydroelectric plants in India, Taqa said.
The company holds 51 percent of the group buying the plants, along with a Canadian institutional investor and Indian infrastructure finance fund IDFC Ltd. (IDFC), Taqa said, without identifying the Canadian partner. The Baspa Stage II and Karcham Wangtoo plants, in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh, have combined capacity of 1,391 megawatts and will bring Taqa’s total generation capability in India to 1,741 megawatts, it said.-Bloomberg
