Orient Green Power Company Limited (OGPL) has decided to disinvest its entire holding of 918,954 equity shares, aggregating 57.92%, held in Sanjog Sugars and Eco-Power (Biomass subsidiary) in favor of Soorya Eco Power.

Orient Green Power is an independent power producer (IPP) in India based with wind assets spread across Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, and Karnataka aggregating 425 MW.

Based in Chennai, Orient Green Power is promoted by SVL, with investments from Bessemer Venture, and Olympus Capital holdings Singapore. Soorya Eco Power is a company based in Jaipur, Rajasthan.

The promoter company has maintained its commitment to the business, waiving off the group loan interest of about ₹330.6 million ($4.8 million) for the year.  A BSE filing by the company added that the previous year had an exceptional income of ₹156 million ($2.3 million). Factors like over 95% grid evacuation in Tamil Nadu and REC trading at around ₹1,500 ($21.63) per certificate bode well for the future, the statement added.

Commenting on the development, S. Venkatachalam, MD of OGPL, said, “FY19 has been a year of consolidation for OGPL – a year wherein we have made steady progress towards consolidating our position in the wind energy generation business following hiving off the biomass business. The year has been subdued with lower wind availability resulting in a shortfall of 640 lakh units of power sales. However, despite this, we have reported revenue of ₹3,389.2 million ($48.9 million) and EBITDA of ₹ 2,464.8 million ($35.6 million).

We have seen several merger and acquisition deals recently.

The Competition Commission of India has announced that it has approved Power Finance Corporation’s (PFC) acquisition of 52% stake in Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) recently. In December 2018, the acquisition received in-principle approval from the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA). Both REC and PFC are government-owned non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) that provide financing to power projects in India.

AMP Solar, a Canadian renewable developer, has also acquired the remaining 51 percent stake in Rudra Solarfarms, a special purpose vehicle built by another renewable developer Suzlon to execute the 15 MW grid-connected solar photovoltaic project at Achampet in Telangana. This was the fourth such transaction by Suzlon in the past few months. In November 2018, Canadian Solar acquired the remaining 51 percent stake in two solar power projects: Amun Solarfarms and Avighna Solarfarms, from Suzlon Energy for a total of ₹280.11 million (~$3.9 million). Initially, Canadian Solar had acquired a 49 percent stake in Amun and Avighna for a total sum of ₹260.42 million (~$3.6 million).

Soumik is a staff reporter at Mercom India. Prior to joining Mercom, Soumik was a correspondent for UNI, New Delhi covering the Northeast region for seven years. He has also worked as an Asia Correspondent for Washington DC-based Hundred Reporters. He has contributed as a freelancer to several national and international digital publications with a focus on data-based investigative stories on environmental corruption, hydro power projects, energy transition and the circular economy. Soumik is an Economics graduate from Scottish Church College, Calcutta University.