IDFC Project Equity invests $68.5m in Indian power production firm

IDFC Project Equity, an Indian infrastructure equity investor, has put INR3.5bn ($68.5m) into Essar Power, a power production company headquartered in Mumbai. The capital will be used for ongoing expansion projects. Essar Power operates three power plants: two in Hazira with generating capacity of 515MW and 500MW each and one in Vadinar with a capacity of 125MW. The company is currently implementing four power projects which are under various stages of construction and are scheduled to be completed over the next three years, after which the total capacity of Essar Power would increase to approximately 6000MW. MK Sinha, president and CEO of IDFC Project Equity, said, "We find the power sector particularly attractive and are delighted to partner with a strong and credible group like Essar for our first large investment in this sector since the initial fund close in June 2008. What we particularly like about this investment is our partner's credible and measured project development and execution plans." Aditya Aggarwal, principal of IDFC Project Equity, added, "We believe that in these unprecedented times, Essar group is well positioned to capitalise on the opportunities in the Indian power sector and leverage its inherent large scale project implementation expertise. The management team at Essar Power is one of the most experienced and proactive in the sector today and we look forward to working with them." IDFC Project Equity manages India Infrastructure Fund (IIF). IIF has been set up as part of the 'India Infrastructure Financing Initiative', a collaborative effort between the government of India and Indian and global financial institutions to deploy $5bn in capital for infrastructure projects in India. IIF currently manages a corpus of $875m.