Public sector firm Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) is planning an initial public offering (IPO) next year to fund its energy programmes, according to a report in Mint. The company has reportedly been valued at around Rs 5,000 crore by financial services company Investec.
The company plans to use the money to fund projects including leasing electric vehicles to companies and installing smart meters to measure power consumption.
EESL is a joint venture set up by four state-run companies in the power sector – NTPC Ltd, Rural Electrification Corp. Ltd (REC), Power Finance Corp. Ltd (PFC) and Power Grid Corp. of India Ltd – with an aim to lead India’s energy-efficiency programme to reduce the country’s carbon emissions.
EESL’s managing director Saurabh Kumar said the company has a capital expenditure requirement of around Rs 25,000 crore over the next 3-4 years. “While it is one thing that I keep on going back to NTPC and PFC, but they have their own capex plans. We will look at it (listing) next year and then we will decide when to do it,” Kumar was quoted as saying in the report.
EESL is expected to post a profit of around Rs 200 crore this fiscal year on a revenue of around Rs 4,000 crore, Kumar said. The company posted a profit of Rs 95 crore in 2018-19, while revenue from operations stood at Rs 1,837.6 crore.
As of 31 March 2019, the company had gross debt of Rs 3,418.6 crore, up 43% from the previous year.
In a separate development, EESL is reportedly planning to curb its electric vehicle (EV) sourcing to less than one-third of the 10,000 sedans it originally tendered amid the worst slump in passenger vehicle sales in nearly two decades.
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Source: News18