Srei consortium buys majority stake in DPSC

Kolkata, Nov 20 : India Power Corp Ltd (IPCL), a consortium comprising Srei Infrastructure Finance and Bhaskar Silicon, was Friday selected for picking up a controlling 57.17 percent stake in power utility DPSC Ltd.

The stake was previously held by state-owned diversified company Andrew Yule along with financial institutions like Life Insurance Corp and United India Insurance Co.

"IPCL bid Rs.710 per share, which adds up to Rs.172 crore for this 57.17 percent," said Andrew Yule chairman Kallol Datta at a press meet after the bidding process.

Added IPCL director Jyoti Poddar: "We will come out with an open offer to buy an additional 20 percent in DPSC."

After taking it over from the management of DPSC, IPCL would take steps to set up a 500-MW power project in West Bengal.

DPSC, which is running a 40-MW plant near Asansol and distributing power to select areas of West Bengal, plans to invest Rs.2,200 crore in the project, company managing director S. Radhakrishnan recently said.

The land acquisition process for the project is currently on.

According to officials of Andrew Yule, JSW Energy and CESC Ltd also participated in the bidding process but both eventually opted out of the race.