Blackstone to invest $300m in Indian energy

The firm is backing power developer Moser Baer, as part of its plans to reportedly invest up to $3bn in India over the next five years.

New York-based private equity group Blackstone will invest $300 million in Indian power developer Moser Baer, a source close to the company told sister news service Infrastructure Investor.

Further details of the deal will be announced later this week. The deal comes a week after Blackstone acquired Dynegy, the American independent power producer, for $4.7 billion.

Meanwhile, Blackstone senior managing director Akhil Gupta recently told a press confernence the group is expected to increase its investments in India to up to $3 billion over the next five years, according to various news reports. The focus of these investments will be infrastructure and the consumer markets.

Presently, half of Blackstone’s $1 billion investment in India is focused on the infrastructure sector. Earlier in July, the group acquired small stakes in Monnet Power, a subsidiary of listed firm Monnet Ispat and Energy, for $59 million.

Moser Baer needs a total of INR30 billion (€501 million; $643 million) to build power plants generating 5,000 megawatts by 2016, according to media reports. More than three-quarters of this amount will be met through debt, with the remainder to come from the company founders and private equity.

Moser Baer has reportedly raised a total of INR4.7 billion in debt and INR2 billion in equity, including the funds from Blackstone. The company has also achieved financial close on 1220 megawatts’ worth of power projects.