Piramal Enterprises, APG to pump $132 mn in Essel Green Energy

Piramal Enterprises, through its Structured Investment Group and Dutch pension fund asset manager APG Asset Management, will jointly invest USD 132 million (about Rs 900 crore) to power Essel Green Energy, the solar platform vehicle of Essel Infraprojects, across India.
Essel Green Energy, owns 160 MW of solar IPP assets in four states, of which, 110 MW is operational and 50 MW is currently under execution.
With this investment, Essel Group expects to propel solar power agenda across the country. Ernst and Young India was the financial advisor to Essel Group for the transaction.
Essel Infraprojects is planning to ramp up solar power capacity to 1,000 MW in the next 2-3 years, it said in a statement today.

"The strategic alliance formed in 2014 between PEL and APG committed USD 1 billion for investments in infrastructure companies and we see great potential in green energy as a segment.
"Given the government's focus on non-conventional energy and Essel Infra's strong track-record, we are confident that the investment will yield good results," said Jayesh Desai, Co-Head, Structured Investments Group- Piramal Enterprises.

With current electricity grid capacity of less than 300 gigawatts, the country aims to increase solar installations from below 5 GW now to 100 GW by 2022 - more than double the present solar capacity of China and Germany, the two biggest solar nations.

Following the success of its residential projects at Thane
and Byculla; Piramal Realty, the real estate development arm of Piramal Group launches Piramal Agastya, a corporate park located on the arterial LBS Road, Kurla. Kurla is a strategic location that enjoys excellent connectivity being the epicenter of key infrastructure developments in Mumbai such as Santacruz - Chembur Link Road (SCLR) and in close proximity of Mumbai Metro Phase 1 and Eastern Freeway. Piramal Agastya Corporate Park will redefine the urban landscape with a well-connected state of the art commercial property in this fast growing business district of Kurla.
Anand Piramal, Executive Director, Piramal Group said, "Piramal Realty aspires to build properties that represent world class standards of customer centricity, design construction and quality. Piramal Agastya, as one of Mumbai's premier commercial addresses, integrates natural beauty with urban landscape inspired by biophilic design. Kurla is a rapidly changing urban blend of residential colonies, industrial estates and commercial enclaves. We believe, Piramal Agastya will add to the overall socio-economic development of the landscape and break new ground as the business environment of the future."

Leveraging global expertise with the advantage of local market knowledge, Piramal Agastya Corporate Park is partners with internationally acclaimed companies such as:
* Callison, Seattle (USA) - Global architecture, urban planning, design and creative services organization * SSA, India - Associate architects for Piramal Agastya. The firm offers a bouquet of services across architecture, interior design, value engineering, project management and sustainable design.