Japanese Orix Interested to Completely Buy IL&FS' Wind Power Plants

Debt-ridden IL&FS informed Japan’s Orix Corporation, which owns 49 pc share each in its seven operating wind power plants, has expressed intent to buy the remaining stake in those assets.

This means ORIX has matched the highest bid placed by GAIL Ltd that valued the enterprise at Rs 4,800 crore. The cash-strapped group had earlier said that Gail had emerged as the highest bidder to acquire the plants, offering Rs 4,800 crore for 100 pc of enterprise value with no hair cut to the debt of the SPVs, which is close to Rs 3,700 crore.

The said wind power plants, in the form of special purpose vehicles (SPVs) and owned by IL&FS Wind Energy Limited (IWEL) across 12 states, have a total generation capacity of 874 MW. The group had initiated the process of the sale of controlling stake in the power plants in November,2018 by inviting expressions of interest.

“The intent to buy 51 pc stake is in exercise of Orix’s right under the terms of an existing MoU wherein Orix can match the price offered by the highest bidder for purchasing IWEL’s stake in the wind SPVs,” Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) said in a statement.

The group expects deal to be closed by the end of June 2019. The completion of sale of SPVs to Orix will be subject to meeting all compliances and approvals.