PTC India plans stake sale in finance arm to raise Rs700 crore

State-owned PTC India Ltd, the nation's largest power trader, is in talks with investors including Hong Kong-based SAIF Partners Ltd for taking a stake in its unit PTC India Financial Services Ltd (PFS), chairman Tantra Narayan Thakur said today.

PTC India Financial Services, a company backed by Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Macquarie Group Ltd, may sell shares to ''private investors, through a public sale or both,'' around September, Thakur, who is also chairman of PFS, said. ''We are in talks with a few investors including SAIF about selling a stake but we haven't finalized anything yet,'' Thakur told the media in New Delhi. ''We haven't received proposals from any of the investors.''

Parent PTC is trying to tap investors' interests in India, the world's fastest-growing economy after China and Brazil. Overseas investments in India's stocks and bonds reached a record Rs83,420 crore ($17.8 billion) in 2009. PTC India Financial Services is raising funds to invest in power projects.

India plans to double its installed electricity capacity in the next seven years to meet energy demand and reduce blackouts. The government has raised at least Rs10,200 crore from selling shares in three state-owned power-related companies since January.

PTC has a 77-per cent stake in PFS, and plans to retain a 51-per cent holding after the sale, Thakur said on 26 May. Goldman Sachs and Macquarie currently hold 11.5 per cent each, he said. JM Financial Ltd, SBI Capital Markets Ltd and ICICI Securities Ltd will advise the sale, Thakur had said.

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Thakur said, ''PTC Financial Services is a NBFC (non-banking financial services company) and we have to raise the capital for providing debt services to the power projects and also to give equity to some of the power projects because we have been both in debt and equity from the financial services. So we have to raise money for that.''