Essar Power raises Rs 1,000 cr via bonds to refinance debt

Essar Power, the power generating arm of the London-listed Essar Energy, has raised Rs 1,000 crore through a domestic bond issuance to refinance older loans.

The power utility said that the rupee denominated bonds will be listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and will be repaid from 2017 to 2024.

The fund raising is a part of the company's plan to replace loans totalling Rs 5,000 crore with longer tenure loans to match the expected cash flow from its projects. With this bond issue, the company has so far raised Rs 2,750 crore and it plans to raise another Rs 2,250 crore.

EssarPower has an installed generation capacity of 3,910 mw and aims to scale up the capacity to 6,700 mw by 2016. It also has access to approximately 500 mt of coal resources across seven coal blocks in India and overseas.