Dear All,
Up until last time I communicated on our holistic business progress almost 6 months back, a lot has changed in the Power Industry with highs and lows on the sentiments of the stakeholders in this sector now appearing in shorter time span. As I have been stating in our group meetings, our clear focus is to de-risk our business and operations and still manage to achieve impressive growth rate. Given the nature of this business, gestation periods are usually high with the complexities attached, and the pace at which we try to deliver is far quicker than the industry standards.
Given this backdrop, I would like to share that we are well placed to grow and some of the pipeline transactions being converted will actually turn out to be game changers for us. To begin with, it is very pleasing to see that we have come a long way and now have a clear line of sight towards commissioning of our Kashipur Project (450 MW) which adds to our generation capacity by March 2012. The first project that we started in 2009 in Himachal Pradesh (Rukti – 5 MW Hydro Project) is all set to be commissioned this month (i.e. Nov 2011) which goes to add on the credentials of the execution capabilities of the Group. Development works have also been initiated on our Wind Project in Madhya Pradesh wherein we have planned for 180 MW in Phase I (100 MW) and Phase II (80 MW). We have placed order for Wind Turbines with clear mandate for commissioning of 100 MW at the minimum by Sept 30, 2012.
As I had updated earlier, we are working aggressively towards the finalization of the formal Joint Venture Agreement for development and construction of Thermal Project with name plate capacity of 2000 MW. We expect the land acquisition to reach to our expected levels by this month end hopefully post which we would commit to the delivery of the implementation. You would recall that we have already received the sign off on EPC and O&M for this Project along with 51% shareholding that we shall acquire shortly as a part of the formal process. Separately, it is also worthwhile to mention that we have also been in active discussions with potential stakeholders for development of a much larger Renewable Portfolio (~ 1000 MW Wind Portfolio) and we expect the outcome of our discussions in the next 2-3 months. Simply put, this discussion has been initiated and moving in the right direction primarily because we are perceived in the market as one of the best executors of Power Projects. Coming back to the larger initiatives on de-risking our business, we are heavily focussed to win 3rd Party EPC businesses.
We have broad based our target areas and moved to destinations like Bangladesh, Nigeria and Gabon. I am being specific here as the discussions with our potential clients are in a fairly advanced stage. Of the 3 destinations, we expect Gabon to fructify soonest. On the development side, again moving from our own territory, we are actively looking at overseas destinations like Iran and Bangladesh where opportunities are far too many to outweigh the challenges.
The team has been working on these two locations since last 4 - 5 months and made significant headway in identifying the locations for development. Considering our business expansion plans and the confidence thereon, we are also consciously and pro- actively investing in infrastructure e.g. taking on new space, upgrading our existing IT facilities, ERP implementation to create robust information platform, etc, so that these factors within our control do not become impediments when we start our execution activities. Over the next 30 days, you would hear all of these coming into active play. Having said that, capital commitments are huge and we have to tread cautiously on all fronts with strategic focus in mind on where we want to be in a few years from now. I guess patience is the key to the right decision and with action happening at all possible fronts, we should be in a position soon enough to pick our bets than remain a back seat spectator.
I shall, soon, update you on the developments as we move together to create industry benchmarks sooner than later!
Warm regards