The board of India Grid Trust (IndiGrid) has approved the acquisition of “NER II Transmission Ltd”, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sterlite Power.
In a stock exchange filing, IndiGrid, India’s first InvIT in the power sector, said that the acquisition, subject to necessary approvals, would be made for an enterprise value not exceeding Rs.4,625 crore.
NER II Transmission Ltd is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sterlite Grid 4 Ltd, in turn a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sterlite Power Transmission Ltd (SPTL).
SPTL is one of the sponsors of IndiGrid while IndiGrid Investment Managers Ltd (formerly Sterlite Investment Managers Ltd) is the investment manager to the trust.
Background on NER II Transmission Ltd (NERTL)
NERTL was incorporated on April 21, 2015. NER entered into a TSA ( transmission service agreement) on December 27, 2016. The project was awarded by the Ministry of Power on February 22, 2017 for a 35-year period from the scheduled commercial operation date of the NER project, on a BOOM basis. The project has 11 elements—two substation elements, four transmission line elements, one LILO element and four line bays.
The project is located in the state of Tripura, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. NER project would strengthen the interconnection between the states of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh and provide an additional source of power to the capital city of Itanagar. The project would also provide a strong interconnection between northern and southern part of North Eastern Region.
Current project status
The NERTL project is currently under development. The scheduled commercial operation date (SCOD) of the different elements of the project as per TSA is between March 31, 2020 and November 30, 2020. As per the letter from Ministry of Power letter dated July 27, 2020, the project has received an extension of five months and accordingly the revised SCOD will be between 31st August 2020 and April 30, 2021.
[Featured photograph (source: Sterlite Power) is a file picture of one element of the NERTL project]