Renewable energy company Greenko Group is set to pay €77 million (about Rs 655 crore) to acquire hydel assets from Lanco Infratech Ltd, which includes the 70 MW Budhil project and two more hydel projects of 5 mw each in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh.

The Hyderabad-based company has increased its capacity to 546 MW and expects to go past the 700-MW mark by March 2014, thereby nearly tripling its capacity during the year.

The company plans to fund the acquisition from project finance debt and internal resources. It is on track to be a 1,000 MW (I Giga Watt) company during 2015.

Anil Chalamalasetty, CEO of Greenko, said, “This is an attractive deal for shareholders as it is earnings accretive and offers strong returns. This acquisition, combined with the wind farms we expect to commission in the coming months, will take us to over 700 MW by the start of 2014 monsoon (June-July), compared to 244 MW a year before.”

The company strategy is to create a diversified hydropower and wind portfolio for the high-demand power market in the country, he said.

The Budhil project is fully built and is in the stabilisation phase. The power generated from the plant will be sold through an open market power purchase agreement. On an average, the project expects a plant load factor of 57 per cent. Greenko expects revenues to flow from fiscal 2014-15.

With the acquisition of the Budhil and Kangra projects, Greenko will have 12 hydel projects operating in the Himachal Pradesh cluster totalling 141 MW.

In addition, four wind farms of 151 MW in all are expected to be commissioned in the new three-five months.

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