CESC, the power utility within the RPG group, has chalked out an investment plan of Rs.30,000-35,000 crore within the XII Plan, company Vice-Chairman Sanjiv Goenka said.
The company, which had an installed thermal capacity of 975 MW, had already entered the hydel sector and was looking at buys (of contracted projects like the Chandrapur one) for taking its aggregate capacity to 10,000 MW, of which 5,000 MW would be hydel.
Addressing a press meet here on Friday, he said CESC’s capacity would touch 6,750 MW (including the 600 MW Chandrapur project in Maharashtra) by 2017. On the hydel front, the company had already been shortlisted for the 500-MW state-owned project in Lena Suntra in Himachal Pradesh. “We are also looking at other hydel projects which are up for sale,” he said. These were expected to be in the Northeast and Himachal Pradesh, he added.
CESC is also pursuing opportunities in the power distribution business.
The company ended the December 2009 quarter with a net profit of Rs.102 crore against Rs.98 crore in the previous year.
On the retail business, he said the business was expected to breakeven by March 2011, when revenues were targeted to be around Rs.1,000 crore.
The group, which had announced its plans to divest around 20 per cent of its stake in Spencers — its retail business arm — is now in “serious talks with a major private equity firm for adding value to the chain which has nine lakh square feet of space,” he said.
