Crompton Greaves invests Rs 227 crore in group power company

Crompton Greaves will pick up 41% stake in Avantha Power and Infrastructure, which is part of Avantha Group.

Electric equipment manufacturer Crompton Greaves will invest Rs 227 crore in another group company Avantha Power and Infrastructure Limited (APIL). Crompton Greaves will have 41% stake in the company post investment. The company will pick up shares of face value of Rs 10 at a book value of Rs 11.

APIL is an Avantha Group company, whose shareholders include Ballarpur Industries Ltd (BILT).

APIL is engaged in the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity. It already has four captive power plants and is in the process of setting up two new independent power produces (IPP) plant with a capacity to generate 600 MW each, in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

Cromptom Greaves views the power generation, transmission and distribution business as a strategic opportunity for its future growth.

Since APIL is a group company, the investment proposal was referred to a committee of independent directors for evaluation. An external professional valuation of APIL was appraised by KPMG India Pvt. Ltd. The committee recommended the investment after assessing the prospects and potential of APIL and the features and the progrees made in APIL’s IPPs in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

Also, since it is a related party transaction the investment proposal was also reviewed by the Audit committee before it was sent to the board of directors for a consideration.

This is Crompton Greaves’ second acquisition in the past six months. The firms had, in September 2008, acquired US-based MSE Power Systems Inc and its group companies - MSE Engineering LLC & MSE West LLC for an enterprise value of $16 million.

The electrical equipment maker has been on an acquisition spree since the past two years as in June last year, the firm has acquired French firm Societe Nouvelle de Maintenance Transformateurs (Sonomatra) for about Euro 1.30 million and in 2007, it had acquired Ireland's Microsol Holdings Ltd for $35 million.

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