NTPC Ltd is looking to raise ₹15,000 crore from the Green Masala Bonds for which the board has already given its approval, said the company’s Chairman and Managing Director, Gurdeep Singh on Monday.
Interacting with the media persons, Singh said the company is looking at raising finances for its expansion plans and if the bonds help raise the funds at cheap rates, then the company will opt for it.
The company is in sound financial health with a debt to equity ratio of 1:1.03, therefore, fund raising is not very challenging,
NTPC’s average cost of borrowing is 8 per cent and therefore, it is exploring the rate at which the bonds could offer the funds, he said.
Singh pointed that the company has 24,059 MW of power plants under construction, of which about 4,500 MW of plants will be commissioned this year.
Therefore, it will require about ₹1.5 lakh crore for the construction the plants (24,059 MW), which will be raised by debts and internal accruals, he said.
On the company’s capital expenditure plans, Singh said last year the expenditure was ₹25,000 crore and this year it would be about ₹30,000 crore.
On the coal availability in the country, he said that Coal India has managed to substantially increase the production, which has resulted in a substantial decrease in the coal imports for NTPC.
In the last nine months, the company has not placed any orders for imported coal. The coal is also being transported in an efficient manner, which in reducing the cost of power by 15 paise unit in the first quarter of the current fiscal.
He also shared that the company was carrying out due diligence on the stressed asset of a State-power distribution company, but the final deal has not been reached.