Indian wind power concern Indian Energy is looking for acquisitions after raising £9.75 million with an AIM float at 80p.
Indian wind power concern Indian Energy is looking for acquisitions after raising £9.75 million with an AIM float at 80p.
Based in Guernsey but run from Mumbai and London, the company, which already operates a 24-megawatt wind power station in south-west India, says it plans to buy operating or ready-to-operate projects to achieve a capacity of 300 megawatts by 2013. Managing director Rupert Strachwitz, a former Dresdner Kleinwort financier who founded Indian Energy three years ago with sector specialist and business development chief Dr Pankaj Agarwal, suggests Indian Energy has identified two potential acquisitions in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.
He explains wind power suppliers can obtain favourable and competitive five-year pricing deals from the regulators in power-hungry India. A system of support through accelerated depreciation allowances encouraged many local conglomerates to set up wind power subsidiaries, but that has been replaced by direct production subsidies, which Strachwitz argues makes the sector ripe for consolidation.
Indian Energy raised its float money from a range of institutions, including Axa and Standard Life, through broker and nominated adviser Arden Partners, having raised a larger pre-float £10 million at a slightly higher price, says Strachwitz. He maintains its operating subsidiary is already generating cash and says he expects Indian Energy to be ‘profitable within two years’.
