Mumbai: Tata Power is looking at acquiring stressed assets across the country as lack of fuel linkages is posing challenges to organic growth, the company chairman Cyrus P Mistry has said. From being the largest private power utility for decades, Tata Power, with 8,726 MW installed capacity at the end of March, had lost the top slot last year to Adani Power, which has 10,440 MW capacity.
At the peak of project delays during the previous regime, due to lack of fuel linkages and green clearances, Tata Power had gone public. "Due to the current financial stress in the power sector, there are assets across the country which may be available for acquisition. We are evaluating and will continue to evaluate opportunities to acquire projects in various stages of development across the country," Mistry said in the 96th annual report of the company.
The acquisitions, if materialised, will leverage the company's business in the power value chain, he said. The power sector was one of the most active sectors in the domestic M&A space in recent past with Lanco and JP Associates exiting many of their stressed projects last fiscal.
Mistry said growth in domestic market has in the last few years been constrained mainly due to the uncertainties around fuel supply, financial condition of the discoms, challenges in land acquisition, water linkages and various other statutory clearances.
"We are exploring multiple options, both green-field and through possible acquisitions. This will help enhance the market share for both solar and wind based generation. "Given the increasing difficulty of acquiring land for future capacity addition in the country, we are actively evaluating and pursuing opportunities to acquire land in strategic markets to help build a strong pipeline," he said.
The company will also continue to focus on greenfield projects in India and abroad as well as on expanding at existing sites, Mistry said. The Tata Group chairman however expressed optimism that the efforts being driven by the Centre are expected to ease some of the known constraints, which in turn will help ease constraints for the power sector.
