By IANS,
Chennai : At a time when dollar funds are fast drying up for Indian corporates, city-based renewable energy company Orient Green Power Company Ltd. has raised $55 million as equity from foreign and private investors.
“Orient Green has raised $55 million from Olympus Capital Holdings Asia, Bessemer Venture Partners and Shriram EPC Ltd. for setting up wind, bio-mass, small hydel and bio-gas power projects,” the company’s managing director and chief executive officer, P.Krishnakumar, told reporters here Tuesday.
Declining to share the revised shareholding pattern in Orient Green, T.Shivaraman, managing director & chief executive officer of Shriram EPC said: “Olympus Capital invested $35 million while Bessemer and Shriram EPC put in $10 million each. The exit route for the investors will be through a public issue couple of years down the line.”
Leveraging its total equity of $75 million, Orient Green will raise debt from domestic banks to fund its ongoing as well as future plans.
Operating 70 MW of renewable energy projects in India (15MW bio-mass, 55MW wind energy), the Rs.450 million revenue Orient Green is planning to acquire or install renewable energy assets to the tune of 514 MW by 2013.
According to Krishnakumar, the company is implementing 146.5 MW capacity projects (bio-mass 98 MW, small hydel 15 MW, wind 5 MW and bio-gas 28.5MW) which would go on stream by 2011.
In wind power, Orient Green buys second hand 250 KW turbines and sets up and manages projects for others.
“There is good residual life in second hand turbines and hence repowering or installation of higher capacity machines at the same site is not necessary,” Shivaraman said.