IL&FS gets Justice Jain's approval to sell wind energy arm

Crisis-ridden IL&FS on Monday said it has received approval from Justice (retd) D.K. Jain on the proposed sale of wind energy subsidiaries, held under IL&FS Wind Energy Ltd (IWEL), to ORIX Corporation of Japan.

Justice Jain was appointed by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) to supervise the operation of resolution process of IL&FS Group companies.

"The approval has been granted on the conditions that the proposal will now be placed before the NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal) for its approval and the bid amount realized from the sale be kept in an escrow account," an IL&FS statement said.

The amount in escrow account will be disbursed in accordance with the directions in the proceedings, pending before the NCLT or the NCLAT, as applicable, it added.

ORIX, owner of 49 per cent stake in each of IL&FS group's seven operating wind power plants, had expressed its intent to buy out the remaining 51 per cent stake held by IWEL under the terms of an existing agreement wherein ORIX can match the price offered by the highest bidder for purchasing IWEL's stake in the wind special purpose vehicles.

ORIX decided to match the offer of the highest bidder, of around Rs 4,800 crore for 100 per cent of enterprise value, contemplating no haircut to the debt of the SPVs aggregating to around Rs 3,700 crore. Some of the major lenders in the SPVs include the Power Finance Corporation, Bank of Baroda (for working capital and project financing), and India Infra Debt Ltd, with debt aggregating to around Rs 3,700 crore (without interest).

The IL&FS statement said that sale to ORIX will lead to resolution of the following seven companies of the IL&FS Group - Lalpur Wind Energy Pvt LTD, Etesian Urja, Khandke Wind Energy, Retadi Wind Power, Wind Urja India, Tadas Wind Energy and Kaze Energy. The IL&FS Board approved the sale of these entities to ORIX Corporation on June 28.

( With inputs from IANS )