REC eyes nuclear space, sees ₹12L-cr lending opportunity

State-owned firm posts 5.6% rise in net profit in Q4FY25

- ARUNIMA BHARADWAJ

STATE-OWNED NON-BANKING FINANCIAL company REC is looking to enter the nuclear space in the next two-to-three years, with plans to lend to public sector companies coming up with nuclear power projects, the company's director (finance) Ajoy Choudhury said.

"Nuclear is another new opportunity for us to participate in. This entails ₹10-12 lakh crore opportunity. We would evaluate (the opportunity) and in the next 2-3 years, we could see something happening (in the space)," he said, adding that the company will focus on small modular reactors.

The company is also betting big on conventional thermal power project financing as the government aims to increase the country's thermal capacity in order to meet the rising demand. The government has planned to increase the country's thermal capacity addition target to 95 gigawatt (GW) by 2031-32 from 80 GW earlier in line with the power demand.