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Dubai's Foresight Group plans to invest $500 million in India

The company wants to start from the source chain to delivery of gas at the terminal and not just limit to one segment of LNG

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Ravi K Mehrohtra
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Dubai-based Foresight Group International, which introduced India's first single-branded retail with Pavers of UK, plans to invest $500 million in LNG, shipping, port and offshore drilling sectors in the country.

The company has initiated the investment two months back and the company officials plan to meet Union shipping minister Nitin Gadkari over it.

Ravi K Mehrohtra, founder and executive chairman of Foresight Group International told DNA Money, "Enron (Corporation) was ahead of time. I am trying to do that."

The company wants to start from the source chain to delivery of gas at the terminal and not just limit to one segment of LNG.

"We will tie up the upstream, shipping and find a user in India. It is a different model we are looking at. Earlier, it was a user driven market, we are changing that thing. We want to provide a cheaper solution by way of floating storage regasification unit (FSRU) and floating storage unit (FSU)," said Hitendra Solanki, head (India), LNG and ports, Foresight Group.

With FSRU and FSU, the company will not invest in infrastructure at the ports, but in "floating infrastructure" that can be moved as and when required.

As per the plans, the $500 million investment will be done over the next five years. Foresight has already acquired a Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) and intends to add five more in 2019 to cater to India's crude import demand. It plans to double the oil rigs ownership from the present five to 10 by 2020. The group would invest $250 million for the development of LNG and ports in India.

There are also plans by the company to invest and expand the retail presence of Pavers England from the present 40 stores to up to 100 stores across 30 cities in India.

Mehrotra said, "We had previously made an investment of around $350 million in two cyber rigs which are working with ONGC and $30 million in Pavers England branded retail, With this investment, India will contribute up to 44%, which we expect would rise to 55% by 2025."

The $1.85 billion group has already invested $600 million in its offshore drilling division by acquiring three cyber offshore rigs; two of which – Vivekanand 1 and Vivekanand – are working with ONGC since 2016. The third rig is getting delivered in January 2019 and will be deployed with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company from March 2019.

INFRA ON CARDS

  • $350 million – Company has invested in cyber rigs which are working with ONGC
     
  • $250 million – It would invest in developing LNG and ports in India
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