Nov 24 2010
Mahindra plans to enter into yet another business field, Solar Power Generation. They are on the lookout for a partner who would provide both the finance and the domain expertise for this project.
According to an industry source, Mahindra is planning to make this a public venture during the upcoming months. An investment partner is being sought and for this purpose negotiations are going on with some firms. A prominent global Private Equity firm (PE) commented that Mahindra would probably prefer to go in for a PE backing such as Kotak PE, with which the company has a good relationship.
This deal would take the tally of Mahindra’s PE backed ventures to three during the last two years. In 2009, the company had signed a partnership with Kotak PE for obtaining majority stakes in Gippsland Aeronautics and Aerostaff Australia, aerospace firms based in Australia. The company’s primary PE backed venture was with ICICI PE for the purchase of Metalcastello, an Italian gear manufacturer in the year 2008. Now more and more industrial houses have begun utilizing PE firms for financing their business deals. The Tata group has taken on Temasek as a partner for Tata Teleservices and Tata Sky; Essar Group associates with IDFC for its power sector ventures; GMR Group goes for IDFC PE for investment in GMR Energy, while 3i partners with GVK Power.
KPMG India’s PE group head, Vikram Uttamsingh remarked that this new trend of industrial houses joining hands with PE companies would keep growing in the future. He also felt that PE firms were ready to invest more in the Power Sector, leading to increased investments in green projects in the current year.