CESC Ltd, the flagship company of the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, said it has bagged a consultancy contract of $2.5 million (Rs 13.7 crore at current exchange rates) a year in power distribution sector in Nigeria.

The five-year contract is renewable after the term-end.

CESC was a part of the consortium that bid for the Port Harcourt Distribution Company Plc. The annual turnover for the distribution company will be $180 million.

“The other consortium partners include private equity funds and Nigerian nationals. CESC will provide technical assistance only,” said Sanjiv Goenka, Vice-Chairman.

CESC also has the option of investing up to six per cent in the distribution company (discom).

“Consortium members are entitled to additional 12.5 per cent revenue each in case the distribution losses are substantially reduced,” Goenka added.

Nigeria has an installed generation capacity of 8,644 MW.

Indian operations

According to Goenka, CESC’s ongoing projects — Haldia (West Bengal) and Chandrapur (Maharashtra) — are on schedule.

The projects will have an installed capacity of 600 MW each (2x300 MW).

While Chandrapur is expected to be commissioned this fiscal, Haldia will be onstream by November next year.

The company will invest around Rs 7,800 crore on these units. Funding would be through debt and internal accruals.

Net profit

CESC reported a net profit of Rs 136 crore for the quarter ended September, up by around 19 per cent against Rs 114 crore over the corresponding quarter last fiscal. Net sales stood at Rs 1,324 crore (Rs 1,156 crore).

BPO service firm buy

Justifying the acquisition of Firstsource Solutions Ltd (FSL) – a BPO service company, Sanjiv Goenka said the company needed to operate in businesses outside government regulations to look for growth opportunities.

“As a person responsible for steering the company, I cannot look at three-six months. We needed to have some business outside a government-regulated business to look for growth opportunities. I believe that in two years, it will be a completely different story,” he said.

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