CDPQ buys add'l 10% in Mumbai-based Apraava Energy at Rs 660 cr deal value

With this, the Canadian pension fund's stake in the firm goes up to 50%

Canadian pension fund CDPQ has increased its stake in Mumbai-based Apraava Energy to 50 per cent by acquiring an additional 10 per cent stake from shareholder CLP for Rs 660 crore.

The company, formerly called CLP India, will become a 50:50 joint venture with the deal, CLP said in a notification to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Tuesday.

CDPQ had acquired 40 per cent stake in Apraava in 2018 for Rs 2,645 crore, with CLP (formerly China Light & Power) retaining 60 per cent stake back then. The Hong-Kong-listed CLP Holdings is amongst the largest foreign investors in the Indian power sector.

Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, managing director, Apraava Energy, said that the company aimed to double its energy portfolio in the next 3-4 years. It would do this by investing Rs 5,000 crore every year in different parts of its energy business.

The company has invested Rs 18,000 crore in its existing businesses so far. This includes power generation, where it has an installed capacity of nearly 3,150 megawatts (Mw), across conventional power plants as well as solar and wind energy units. It will soon commission a 250-Mw wind energy project in Gujarat. The company also has two transmission assets, including one in Madhya Pradesh and the other in the north-east covering Manipur, Assam and Nagaland.                              

The company proposes to expand its power transmission business and enter into power distribution, smart energy meters and battery storage systems in the future, Mishra said.

"We want to be a diversified energy solutions provider, which deals with non-carbon sources of electricity,” he said.

The renewable energy sector in India has attracted significant investor interest, a report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis said last month. It said that investment in green energy had surged over 125 per cent year-on-year to touch a record $14.5 billion in the financial year 2021-22 (FY22). And that this number could grow in the future on the back of commitments made by conglomerates such as Reliance, Adani group and Tata Power.