Greenko, Lord Dholakia, Jindal Power may invest in country's new power exchange

Power trader PTC India is set to tie up with global investors and private equity firms such as Greenko Energies, Tollman International Varanium Capital (5 per cent), and Lord Dholakia as part of its plan to set up the country's third power exchange.

Sources in the company said that Pranurja Solutions Ltd, a company promoted by BSE, PTC Ltd and ICICI Bank is in talks with various global and Indian investors for equity participation in the proposed power exchange.

"The investment participation is expected to be finalised by next month after which a reworked application would be made by Pranuja for power exchanges licence with Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC)," company sources said.

CERC has approved the application of Pranurja to set up a power exchange, which will be the country's third after IEX and PXIL. However, the regulator has asked the promoters to reduce their shareholding to not more than 25 per cent each, and come up with a reworked equity structure within eight weeks for getting registration of their power exchange.

In the current structure, Pranuja has 49 per cent equity holding from PTC while the balance is divided between ICICI Bank and BSE.

In its submission to CERC, Pranuja has provided a tentative equity structure in the power exchange that lowers the promoter shareholding while bringing other investors. The proposed shareholding pattern is: PTC India Limited (25 per cent), BSE Investments Limited (25 per cent), ICICI Bank (9.9 per cent), Greenko Energies (5 per cent), Kirti Telnet (5 per cent), Subrashi Vinimay (5 per cent), Jindal Power (2 per cent), Chamaria (3.1 per cent), Tollman International (5 per cent), Varanium Capital (5 per cent), Lord Dholakia (5), and Meenakshi Power (5 per cent).

"The reworked equity structure may not be exactly like the one given to CERC but it would have a mix of Indian and global investors. We need at least two more investors apart from the existing three promoter partners. The exact quantum will be finalized in the next eight weeks and we hope our power exchange is registered by the end of the year so that operations could start early next year," said the source quoted above.

Though the power trade on exchanges have picked up in recent months, such deals in the overall power market in the country are less than 10 per cent. The entry of a new exchange and changes in regulations is expected to give a boost to power exchanges.

At present IEX is the dominant power exchange with a share of 95 per cent of the existing market. The other exchange, PXIL, has limited operations. The adding of another string power exchange is expected to change the scenario..