CESC shortlisted for Nigerian discom sale

RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group flagship CESC has emerged as the sole Indian company to be shortlisted as a bidder for participating in the privatisation of power distribution companies (discoms) in Nigeria.

On the other hand, Adani Power, Tata Power, Essar, GMR, Jindal Power, Lanco, Monnet Ispat, Punj Lloyd and Srei Infrastructure Finance are the Indian business houses that have put in bids for disinvestment of power generation companies in Nigeria. Lanco, Monnet, Punj Lloyd, Srei, Tatas, Jindal Power and Essar have each put in bids for four generating companies, while Adani and GMR have put in two bids each.

The African nation has embarked on a massive privatisation programme involving sale of a majority 51% stake in four thermal generation plants, 11 discoms and three hydro power plants, all
curved out of the state-owned Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).

Kolkata-based CESC is part of a consortium selected to bid for Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company Plc, one of 11 discoms being privatised. The consortium includes Vigeo Holdings, Gumco and African Corp AFC.

Emerging winner would be tough for CESC as among the discoms, Ikeja Electricity has seen the highest number of bids at 10. A total of 54 global bidders are in the fray for 11 discoms.

The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) of Nigeria will open the financial bids for the distribution companies on October 16. The winning bids will be revealed on October 23.

For the generating companies, the announcement of preferred bidders will be made on October 9, BPE stated.
In all, 87 companies have shown interest in the generating companies.

At the initial stage of the disinvestments process, which began more than a year ago, there were 253 bids for the 11 distribution outfits and 272 bids for generating companies.

The Indian companies eyeing the generating companies have competition from outfits like Posco Power of South Korea, Marubeni of Japan, AES Corp of US, Honeywell Energy Resources of UK and Israel Electric Co.

Nigeria has an installed generation capacity of 8,644 mw, of which 6,905 mw is owned by PHCN. It plans to take the capacity to 26,561 mw in the next eight years as part of its Vision 2020 plan.