To Raise Rs 90Cr From FE Clean Energy


December 10 2009, Clean had earlier infused equity into Ambuthirtha Power Pvt Ltd, a 22MW hydro power project of Soham Group.

Soham Renewable Energy India (SREIPL), a Bangalore-based company involved in power generation in the renewable sector is close to raising Rs 90 crore from FE Clean Energy, a private equity firm investing in mid-market energy efficiency space. The company expects the process to be completed by the end of January 2010.

The equity fund had earlier invested in the company at a project level. It had earlier infused equity into Ambuthirtha Power Pvt Ltd, a 22MW hydro power project of Soham Group.

The company will deploy the fund for an acquisition led growth apart from expansion at project levels. It plans to acquire companies to have pan-India footprint. It targets partially completed projects of 10MW-25MW capacities. Its area of preference includes Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Maharastra, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh. It is also looking at possibilities to expand in Sri Lanka.

Earlier, the company raised Rs 80 crore in a private equity funding from global funds, including a commitment of Rs 60 crore from DE Shaw and the rest from FE Clean Energy.

Soham, which currently operates two power plants in Karnataka with a total capacity of 37MW, has lined up around Rs 700-crore expansion plan across nine plants to increase the power generation capacity to 100MW over a period of next 3-4 years. It has already invested Rs 235 crore and plans to raise the remaining amount through mix of equity and debt.

FE Clean Energy had made some other investments in India. It has invested in Swasti Power Engineering Ltd, a 22.5MW hydro power project in Uttarkhand; and in Elpro, an energy service company in Bangalore.