India’s Adani Earmarks $6B for Coal Projects in Australia and Indonesia
The Adani Group of India has allotted a $6 billion worth of funds for projected coal mine-related expenditures as it pushes through with its overseas expansion plans in Australia and Indonesia by 2015.
The group is likewise interested to buy the majority 65 per cent stake hold of BG Group PLC in India's Gujarat Gas Co., worth $900 million, still part of overall operational expansion plans.
The billion worth allocated investment funds will go into developing its coal mines in Australia's Queensland province and a port at Abbot, as well as on an undisclosed coal mine in Indonesia.
The group, India's largest coal importer, acquired Australia's Galilee coal project for $2.7 billion two years ago. It also paid another $2 billion to get the Abbot Point coal terminal, also in Australia. The Adani conglomerate is recognized as Australia's single largest Indian investor.
"We will be investing $6 billion into our overseas assets spread in Australia and Indonesia by 2015," billionaire group chairman Gautam Adani told reporters after launching the company's new corporate logo in Mumbai.
The coal produced from the mines in Australia and Indonesia will be used back in India to run the group's own power stations. Part will also be sold to other coal traders for potential power generation of other power stations.
Meanwhile, Adani has been included in a list of seven bidders pushing to acquire majority control of Gujarat Gas Co. as it mulls to expand to the oil and gas sector.
By 2017, the country expects its current gas demand of 166 million cubic metres a day to rise to 443 million cubic metres a day, spurred by the increasing number of power plants, industries and vehicles in Asia's third-largest economy.
Gujarat Gas Co. supplies piped and compressed natural gas to customers across the western state. It operates a 3,700 kilometre-long gas pipeline network in the area.
Other bidders vying for Gujarat Gas Co. include France's EDF; Germany's E.ON; two US and UK-based private equity firms; India's Torrent Power; and a consortium of Indian state-run energy companies ONGC, Bharat Petroleum and Gujarat State Petroleum.