Private equity player Blackstone Advisors India Pvt Ltd has backed out of final stage talks to invest about INR 500 crore in Kolkata based Visa Power’s 1,200 MW power plant in Chhattisgarh.

Sources familiar with the development said that Blackstone which had been in talks for the last six months, decided to back out when Visa Power started negotiating with other PE firms in parallel for a better valuation. According to them, Blackstone always wants an exclusive negotiation with portfolio companies without interference by other PE firms. JM Financial was the advisor to Visa Power for the fundraising.

Visa Power, part of the INR 5,000 crore Visa Group had inked a MoU with the Chhattisgarh government in 2007 for setting up the 1,200 MW coal based independent power plant. The plant, which has been allotted 99.12 million tonnes of coal from the Fatehpur East Coal Block, has an estimated project cost of INR 6,200 crore.

Mr Vikas Agarwal MD of Visa Power, did not respond to queries, while a Blackstone spokesperson said that “As a policy, we do not comment on market speculations.”

(Sourced from BS)