NHPC eyes PTC buy minus finance unit

Move to help NHPC expand trading, other promoters exit PTC

- Rituraj Baruah

India's largest hydropower generator NHPC Ltd is keen on buying out its public sector co-promoters in power trading firm PTC India Ltd, three people aware of the plan said.

The Union power ministry officials will meet top executives from the four PSU promoters on Friday when the PTC India stake sale is likely to be discussed, one of the three people said on the condition of anonymity.

Currently, NHPC, NTPC Ltd, Power Grid Corp. of India Ltd and Power Finance Corp. Ltd hold about 4.05% each in PTC India, totalling 16.2%.

The four PSUs had appointed ICICI Securities as merchant banker in 2022 for the transaction, after the power ministry approved their exit plan.

"The companies have been eyeing an exit for some time now and are expecting to carry out the stake sale by the end of this financial year," the person cited above added.

Queries emailed to NHPC, NTPC, PowerGrid and PFC remained unanswered.

Acquiring PTC India would expand the power trading share of NHPC, which already has a licence for this purpose.