PTC India Financial Services (PFS), the infrastructure financing arm of PTC India, is in talks with 3-4 domestic and international investors for setting up a renewable energy fund focussed on making investments in clean energy segment.
“We are in advanced stage of negotiations with some international funds for a co-investment vehicle. The fund will look at investments, may be in India or South Asia,” Pawan Singh, Director and CFO, PFS told Express. While Singh did not disclose the corpus or the first closing of the fund, he said the fund raising will be done in accordance with the net worth of PFS. The company’s net worth stood at Rs 1,172 crore as of March 31, 2012.
Multilateral funding institutions like International Finance Corporation (IFC) have been quite bullish about the potential of the renewable energy sector. In fact, IFC had provided a $50 million line of credit to PFS in 2011 for on-lending by the latter to companies and projects in the renewable energy space.
Aiming to scale up implementation of energy efficiency across various sectors, the Power Ministry is in the process of setting up a Partial Risk Guarantee Fund and Venture Capital Fund under the National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency. Both the funds are being managed by Bureau of Energy Efficiency.
On the company’s fund raising plans, Singh said the focus is on tapping the external commercial borrowings route. “We are looking at raising $150 million to $200 million,” he added.