Blackstone suspends payments to Visa Power – report

Sources told LiveMint that a significant portion of the money has not been dispersed. Power sector investments are often conditional on the company obtaining environmental clearances, licenses and sanctions within a certain period of time. Failure to comply means that subsequent tranches of funding are placed on hold.

Visa Power's core asset is a 1,200 megawatt coal-fired plant in Chhattisgarh, which is said to rely on a captive coal mine for much of its fuel, thereby minimizing costs. It also has 6,600 MW of capacity under development, including a 1,320 MW coal-based super critical plant in Orissa.

Blackstone's purchase of a 25.2% stake in the company in July 2011 was one of the largest ever deals in India's power sector. It was also Blackstone's third deal in the sector in 15 months, with total expenditure reaching $500 million. The other investments were in Monet Power and Moser Baer Projects Private.

In August 2010, Akhil Gupta, chairman and managing director of Blackstone India, said the private equity firm "would not hesitate" to deploy $1-1.5 billion of its $2-3 million nationwide investment target in the power sector if attractive deals presented themselves.

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• Topics
• Infrastructure
• Industrials
• South Asia
• India
• energy
• The Blackstone Group