Jindal Power to acquire Gujarat’s Bhadreshwar Vidyut for ₹500 crore 

Indian billionaire Naveen Jindal promoted Jindal Power is set to acquire Gujarat-based thermal power genco, Bhadreshwar Vidyut Pvt Ltd., for nearly ₹500-odd crore, sources in the know told businessline. 

Acquisition is to be made under the corporate insolvency process allowing Jindal Power a foothold in Gujarat. 

“Jindal Power has received CoC approval and the Letter of Intent some days back. The resolution plan was for nearly ₹470 crore-odd,” a person in the know said. 

Jindal Power did not respond to queries from businessline.

The acquisition is to be funded through internal accruals and Jindal Power will invest another ₹25-50 crore additionally towards capex in the acquired entity. 

Bhadreshwar Vidyut, formerly known as OPGS Power Gujarat, is a special-purpose vehicle promoted by the OPG group. It has two coal-based power plants of 150 MW each in Kutch, built at a project cost of ₹1640 crore with a debt-equity ratio of 75:25. The first unit was completed in February 2015, and the second unit in February 2016.

The company was admitted to NCLT (Chennai) in October 2022 following a petition by the State Bank of India. 

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The company’s (Bhadreshwar Vidyut) loan was classified as NPA (non-performing asset) in December 2020; and a debt restructuring was carried out subsequently where it was recast to ₹850 crore as against ₹1200 crore-odd. Lenders rejected the recast forcing the company to go into corporate insolvency. 

Highest Bidder 

Jindal Power emerged as the highest bidder across multiple rounds of bidding, sources said. 

There were multiple rounds of bidding to determine the highest bidder (H1) under two separate challenge processes. Both the challenge processes were conducted through an iterative bidding process, i.e., each participant was given the chance to improve the offer of the last round and this process continued till only one bidder was left standing. 

Importantly, in the second challenge process, the rules stated that it was the final opportunity given to the bidders to make their offers. In both the first and second challenge processes, Jindal Power emerged as the highest bidder. 

“Jindal Power was the sole participant and the highest bidder in the second challenge process,” the person said, adding that the company would look to complete the acquisition in the next six months odd. 

A greenfield project of this size would cost Jindal Power a capex of ₹2500 crore. 

Jindal Power currently has projects running across Raigarh (3400 MW), Nellore (600 MW) (acquired in 2022 at ₹300 crore) and at Dhule (300 MW).

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