PTC plans JV with Singapore's Asian Infratech for coal asset buys abroad

1 Jan 2009, 0318 hrs IST, Subhash Narayan & Dheeraj Tiwari, Economic Times India 

NEW DELHI: PTC India, the country’s largest electricity trading company, is diversifying into coal and looking for coal mines to buy abroad. It will set up a joint venture with Singapore-based firm Asian Infratech for identifying and acquiring companies overseas. 

“The new company will be a 50:50 joint venture between PTC and Asian Infratech. We’ll be bidding for acquiring entire operations of coal mines on sale and also look at picking up minority stake in coal and power companies. It is yet to be decided whether PTC will directly invest in the new company or through PTC Energy, our arm looking into asset-based business,” said a senior PTC official, who did not wish to be quoted. 

The two companies recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU). The new joint venture company has already identified some coal mines in Indonesia and plans to bid for them. 

PTC aims to bring almost 15 million tonnes of coal to India through this route, which is enough to generate 5,000 mw power. Asian Infratech is a subsidiary of Singapore-based Asian Infrastructure, which invests in power-generation assets and services business. 

PTC will use a substantial portion of the Rs 1,200-crore it raised in 2008 for investing in the JV. The company may be started with an initial capital of Rs 600 crore, with Rs 300 crore contributed by PTC. The PTC official, however, could not confirm this. The investment would be finalised before the two companies sign the joint venture agreement within the next few weeks. 

Indonesia, Singapore and other Southeast Asian countries are ideally suited for routing coal back to India due to lower freight costs. The new company would also supply coal to local players in these countries and bid for power projects there. 

India’s galloping demand for power has made it important to secure fuel supplies. Already, Tata Power, NTPC, Coal India, Reliance Power, Lanco Infratech and GVK Power either plan to or have picked up equity in coal assets abroad, especially in Indonesia. 

The government has also set up International Coal Ventures (ICVL), a joint venture of five large public sector undertakings, for scouting coal assets abroad. Apart from overseas operations, PTC is also in talks with Goldman Sachs, Macquarie and Blackstone, among other global players to set up $1-billion offshore fund for providing equity support to power projects.