Tata Power to enter S Africa's power sector with Exxaro

Tata Power, India's largest private power producer and South African-based diversified resources company Exxaro will form an equal joint venture for power generation projects in South Africa.

Tata Power's subsidiary, Khopoli Investments and Exxaro today announced the joint venture company, Cennerji (Pty) Ltd.

Based in South Africa, Cennergi will focus on areas such as feasibility, development, ownership and operations of electricity generation projects in South Africa, Botswana and Namibia.

"Cennergi has been created by companies from developing nations to serve developing nations. We expect Cennergi to play a key role in African electricity generation market," said Sipho Nkosi, CEO of Exxaro.

Cennergi aims to be the leading cleaner energy independent power producer (IPP) in Southern Africa, serving an expanding energy market. This partnership with Tata Power will add the skills and capabilities necessary to create a world class energy company in this region with enormous growth opportunities,'' he added.

"Tata Power is happy to pursue new avenues in the international space by partnering with good local entities. The joint venture is consistent with our strategy of pursuing growth opportunities for energy development in potential markets," said Anil Sardana, managing director at Tata Power.

Pretoria-based and listed on the JSE, Exxaro, formerly part of Kumba Resources, is a mining group with a diverse commodity portfolio in coal, mineral sands, base metals and industrial minerals, with exposure to iron ore through a 20 per cent interest in Sishen Iron Ore Company (SIOC).

It is South Africa's second-largest coal producer with capacity of 45 million tonnes per annum and the third-largest global producer of mineral sands.