CCI seeks more info on Adani Energy's IntelliSmart deal

New Delhi: The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has sought more information from Adani Energy Solutions on its proposed ₹3,050-crore acquisition of IntelliSmart Infrastructure. The regulator's website showed the combination's status as "information incomplete" on Thursday evening, two months after the parties filed their notice on July 27.

In a statement announcing the acquisition, Adani Energy Solutions Ltd (AESL) said it was "on track to become India's largest smart metering platform" with a total portfolio of more than 4.7 crore (47 million) smart meters. IntelliSmart is among the top three players in India's smart metering segment, with more than 2.2 crore (22 million) meters across five states, it said.

IntelliSmart is a joint venture between state-controlled National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) and Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL). AESL signed an agreement on June 9 to acquire the company outright, with completion subject to antitrust approval and indicatively expected within 180 days.


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Sector watchers said the time taken to respond to regulatory requests does not count towards the CCI's review period. They added that such requests are routine.

A summary of the proposed combination said the Adani Group is "primarily involved in the activities of transmission and distribution of electricity and in the business of deployment of advance metering infrastructure for electricity in India".

IntelliSmart, too, is involved in the deployment of advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) for electricity in India, as well as certain smart gas meters.

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The summary identified "horizontal overlaps" between the two companies in the market for deployment of AMI for electricity in India. It also identified downstream and upstream vertical overlaps in the deployment of meters for piped natural gas (PNG) city gas distribution in India.

The provision of cloud services in India was also identified as an upstream relevant market, where the parties have overlaps or linkages.