Middle East Coal eyeing Indian power plants in exchange for long term coal supply
Wednesday, 28 Oct 2009
Reuters reported that UAE's Middle East Coal is in talks to buy equity stakes in India's power plants in exchange for long term coal supply.
MEC is JV between UAE investment fund RAK Minerals & Metals Investments and UAE based mining company Trimex. RMMI won a license in March to build a 150 kilometers long rail link carrying coal from a mine in Indonesia's East Kalimantan province to a coal terminal.
Mr Madu Koneru VC of Middle East Coal said that "We are close to signing a contact with a number of Indian power plants who need to be supplied with coal over the coming 15 years, the deals will be finalized by the end of next month. India has one of the fastest growing economies and also has a shortage of power supply so that's why we have decided to go ahead with these deals."
The deals would help MEC find the USD 500 million in financing it needs for the project. MEC would start approaching institutions for funding once the deals were in place.
He said that RMMI plans to provide USD 100 million of the initial USD 600 million investment. Around USD 500 million will come from institutions such as the World Bank. The rest of the investment would come from additional partners that the company is now seeking.
Middle East Coal plans to start shipments of 3 to 5 million tonnes of thermal coal via road. Once the rail project is complete, shipments would rise to 17 million tonnes. MEC had raised its projections for how much coal it could ship as it had progressed with planning for the project. Earlier this year, the company said that it would ship 15 million tonnes of coal.
