In its regulatory filing, Vedanta announced to acquire 100% of the paid-up capital of Athena Chhattisgarh Power for a purchase price of ₹564.67 crore. The transaction will be carried in the form of cash.
Vedanta expects the acquisition to complete in the current financial year FY23.
"The acquisition will fulfill the power requirement for Vedanta Aluminium Business and via vertical integration add synergies by providing a cost advantage pertaining to power consumption," Vedanta said in its filing.
Athena is a 1200MW power plant located at Jhanjgir Champa district, Chhattisgarh, India at a distance of ~80kms from BALCO and ~180kms from Jharsuguda. The Plant has 2 units of 600MW each.
Notably, unit 1 and unit 2 are 80% and 30% complete respectively, and therefore, Athena has never been operational.
Athena Plant is well connected to national highways and railway stations and is also located in close proximity to its water source, Mahanadi River, and fuel source.
On BSE, Vedanta shares closed at ₹227.70 apiece higher by ₹13.20 or 6.15%.
On May 15, 2019, Athena was admitted under Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (“CIRP"). Later on May 13, 2021, the NCLT Hyderabad bench directed the initiation of the Liquidation process of the Company.
Earlier this week, Vedanta announced its production data for the quarter ending June 2022 (Q1FY23) period.
In Q1FY23, in India, Vedanta's aluminium output rises by y 3%YoY to 565,000 tonnes. Mined metal production grew 14%YoY to 252,000 tonnes on account of higher ore production across all the mines and supported by better mill recovery.
Vedanta also achieved the highest ever refined metal production at 260,000 tonnes, up 10%YoY, due to better plant and mined metal availability. Integrated Zinc production increased 10%YoY to 206,000 tonnes. Further, the company's refined lead production was up 11%YoY and 9%QoQ to 54,000 tonnes on account of better plant availability and the pyro plant being on Lead mode for part of the quarter. Saleable Silver production, in line with Lead metal production, grew 10%YoY and 9%QoQ to 177 tonnes
