Gautam Adani’s Adani Power won its first coal block in the on going e-auctions after its bid of ₹302 a tonne for Jitpur in Jharkhand beat the likes of Jindal Steel and Power Ltd, Jaiprakash Power Ventures Ltd and others.
Adani’s success comes after the company failed to win any of the six producing blocks that were sold between February 14 and February 22.
On Wednesday, three blocks in Jharkhand went under the hammer. Besides Jitpur, Brinda & Sasai was the other block that was awarded. The block went to Usha Martin Ltd at ₹1,804 a tonne.
The third block, Moitra, was sold for ₹1,512 a tonne to JSW Steel. The block is first to be won by Sajjan Jindal's JSW Group.
Moitra has 215.78 million tonne of geological reserves. The previous owner of the block was Jayswal Neco Ltd.
The bidding pattern during the day indicated the cautious stance of participating companies in auctions for the second set of blocks which are only for ready-to-produce blocks. Once the bidding starts, companies get eight minutes to make a counter offer. The bidders were often found waiting till the last minute to make a counter offer.
Jitpur was previously owned by Jindal Steel and Power Ltd and according to the mine detail on the MSTC website, the Jitpur block has 81.09 million tonne of geological reserves.
Auction for Jitpur hit zero in the initial phase of reverse bidding mechanism adopted for power sector. Under the reverse bidding the potential buyers have to bid below a capped price of coal till they hit zero, after which forward bidding starts. In forward bidding, the highest bidder wins.
Brinda & Sasai that went to Usha Martin Ltd has geological reserves of 61.75 million tonne. The previous owner of the block was Abhijeet Infrastructure Ltd.
There will be two blocks on offer on Thursday which will again see participation from Adani Power. Also in the hunt are GMR Mining, Jindal Power, Hindustan Zinc, Jaypee Cement and others.