Plans to start with Rs 500 cr investment.
PTC India, the country’s leading power trading company, is planning to foray into the private equity business with an initial investment of more than Rs 500 crore.
The PE firm will in turn raise funds from other institutional investors, domestic and overseas.
The company is contemplating to raise up to Rs 1,500 crore through various routes, which will be partly used to start the PE fund, sources said.
Of this, Rs 1,200 crore will be raised by PTC through private placement of non convertible debentures (NCDs) and warrants. Another Rs 300 crore will be mopped up by PTC Finance Services (PFS), the financial arm of PTC India.
PFS is a non-banking financial services company, in which Goldman Sachs and Macquarie India Holdings had picked up 40 per cent stake in January 2008 for Rs 156 crore.
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The board of PFS is slated to meet early next week to decide the modality of raising fresh funds, sources said.
Says PTC Chairman and Managing Director T N Thakur, “The company is exploring various routes to mop up resources to participate in the equities of various companies, with whom we have long-term agreement for the purchase of power.
The board of PFS is meeting next week to raise fresh resources. A final decision on the amount and its modality would be decided after consulting other board members.”
Sources close to the development say the two foreign partners are unlikely to participate in the next round of fund infusion through equity route in PFS.
The two investors have already acquired 20 per cent stake each at Rs 16 a share. The face value of the share is Rs 10. The transaction had valued PFS, whose paid-up capital is Rs 243.2 crore, at Rs 389.35 crore.
The state-owned PTC India has brought in Rs 146 crore for its 60 per cent equity holding in the subsidiary at Rs 10 per share.
PFS, which has already acquired a 26 per cent stake in the country’s first power exchange — Indian Energy Exchange — has also the mandate to invest in greenfield and brownfield power generation assets, power transmission and distribution assets, apart from energy-related infrastructure assets such as gas pipelines, fuel-linked ports and electricity equipment.