Suzlon Group to sell China unit for $60 mln

Maintenance engineers work on top of a power generating wind turbine at Suzlon wind farm in Surajbari village, about 275 km west of Ahmedabad, December 14, 2009.

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Suzlon Group, which controls wind-turbine maker Suzlon Energy, said on Saturday it will sell stake in its China manufacturing unit to China Power New Energy Development Co. Ltd. for 3.4 billion rupees.

Suzlon, the world's fifth-largest wind turbine maker by cumulative installed capacity, will sell the unit with the majority of its assets and liabilities, it said in a statement.

"This is also in line with our previously announced strategy to dispose of non-critical group assets to reduce our long-term debt," Suzlon Chairman Tulsi Tanti said in a statement.

"... We are realigning our strategy to the China market with an agile, asset-light business model to achieve the high growth and margins but with lower investments," he said.

Suzlon Group established its marketing operations in China in 2005, followed by a wholly-owned manufacturing facility in 2006. The company has till date installed over 900 megawatts of wind capacity in China.

(Reporting by Nandita Bose; Editing by Ed Lane)