Eyes lending to projects in smart cities, sewage treatment, railway electrification, mining, electric vehicle infra
At a time when power sector is under stress, state-run Power Finance Corp Ltd (PFC) plans to start lending to projects such as sewage treatment plants, smart cities, railway electrification, mining, electric vehicle charging stations, mini-grids, among others.
PFC chairman and managing director Rajeev Sharma on Thursday said that the company is exploring options to diversify its loan portfolio instead of limiting it to only thermal, hydro and renewable power projects across the country.
In the mining space, PFC is eyeing projects pertaining to gas, liquefied natural gas and coal mining.
"There is railway electrification, smart cities infrastructure, electric vehicle manufacturing units including charging stations, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, battery manufacturing units for solar projects, mini and micro-grids, energy-efficiency systems like co-generation or tri-generation or combination of heat as well as power and waste heat recovery systems we are looking at as part of our diversification plans," said Sharma.
During the financial year ended on March 31, 2018, for the first time PFC ventured into electro and mechanical components of irrigation schemes of Telangana by disbursing Rs 2,000 crore and sanctioning loans worth Rs 12,000 crore.
Similarly, for the first time, it financed two waste-to-energy power projects. The state-run non-banking financial company sanctioned and disbursed loan for 25 megawatt Bawana waste-to-energy project in Delhi by Ramky Group and sanctioned a loan for 15 mw project in Ahmedabad for GoodWatts WTE Ltd.
In this fiscal, the corporation intends to raise around Rs 65,000 crore through instruments such as domestic bonds, commercial papers, foreign currency deposits, capital gains bonds. "Already an approval has been received from the Board to raise Rs 60,000 crore this fiscal," said N B Gupta, director (finance), PFC.
The company's loan asset growth guidance continues to remain unchanged at 14%. A quantum jump was registered in financing renewable energy sector projects, wherein business grew 260% from Rs 2,500 crore to Rs 9,000 crore in the last financial year.
"Our loan book for renewable energy sector has increased to 6% now, which was 1% earlier. By 2020, I expect that its share will be around 15-20% of our loan book," said Sharma.
Senior PFC officials also shared that during this fiscal they have plans to upgrade government-restructured assets worth around Rs 12,000 crore and another about Rs 4,600 worth non-performing assets (NPAs) to standard assets.
Of the total Rs 2.79 lakh crore loan exposure that the company has, Rs 2.28 lakh crore is towards government-owned projects and about Rs 51,000 crore has been extended to private power projects.
"Our 89% of the total asset book does not have any kind of stress, but the balance 11% stress (worth Rs 31,000 crore) is from the private lending," said Sharma.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "Rajeev Sharma")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}