NTPC Evaluating Offer to Buy South African Coal Mine
September 16th, 2009 | File Under : Coal - Companies - Mining Exploration
NTPC Ltd., India’s biggest electricity producer, is evaluating an offer to buy a South African coal mine as part of a plan to secure fuel supplies.
“We are in preliminary stages of discussion,” Chairman R.S. Sharma told reporters in New Delhi today. “We have been approached with a proposal that we are evaluating.” Sharma declined to give details.
NTPC may spend $1 billion to buy a company in South Africa that has an exploration license for 1 billion metric tons of coal reserves, the Mint newspaper reported.
The state-run utility, which gets most of the coal for its plants from state monopoly Coal India Ltd., plans to buy mines in India and overseas to plug a local shortfall. It will start acquiring land for a coal mining project in eastern India soon and buy “at least” one mine abroad this year, Sharma said.
NTPC hired Macquarie Group Ltd. to evaluate a proposed coal mine purchase in Indonesia, Sharma said on Sept. 9.
NTPC shares rose 1.4 percent to 208.05 rupees at 1.58 p.m. in Mumbai trading. The benchmark Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive Index gained 1.3 percent.
The total generation capacity of NTPC and its ventures is 30,644 megawatts, according to the company’s Web site. India’s total installed capacity was 151,073 megawatts as of July 31, according to the Central Electricity Authority.
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