Corporate restructuring at NEPC complete

The sale of NEPC India's wind division, including tower manufacturing and assembly facilities in Pondicherry, to Southern Windfarms, a special purpose company established by NEPC to enable it to restructure and shed debt (Windpower Monthly, November 2005), has formally been confirmed. Under the deal, Southern is paying INR 1.35 billion ($29.8 million) directly to NEPC India's secured and unsecured creditors. Southern Windfarms, due to be listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange, is now owned by Reliance Capital (51%), Nimesh Shah, a broker (13%) and Sterlite chief financial officer Tarun Jain (4%), with the remaining shares to be held by NEPC shareholders, who will receive 12.5 shares in Southern Windfarms for every 100 shares held in NEPC. Reliance Capital is understood to have paid $21 million for its stake in the Southern Windfarms back in April and plans to spend around $556 million to set up around 500 MW of wind capacity, with Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Gujarat seen as possible locations. The turbine supplier is expected to be GE, says Reliance, although the US firm declines to comment. An industry source says GE's India order book is full up to 2008. NEPC entered the wind business in the 1980s as NEG Micon's local Indian partner.