Bangladesh is likely to set aside pricing concerns and retain a power purchase pact with India’s Adani Power in the face of supply worries and gloomy prospects for a legal challenge, sources said.
The new government has set up a panel to gauge whether its predecessor’s contracts adequately protected the nation’s interests.
One contract being scrutinised over price concerns is a 2017 deal to buy electricity for 25 years from Adani’s $2-billion, 1,600-MW power plant in Jharkhand that exclusively supplies Bangladesh.
The project meets nearly a tenth of Bangladesh’s demand for power, so cancelling the Adani deal outright would be difficult, however, the sources said.
Also, a legal challenge in an international court was likely to fail without strong evidence of wrongdoing.
While an exit may not be possible, the only feasible option could be a mutual agreement to reduce the tariff, the source said.
Asked for comment on the remarks, Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan, the power and energy adviser, or de facto minister in the interim government, said, “The committee is currently reviewing the matter, and it would be premature to comment.”
Adani Enterprises
Gautam Adani’s flagship firm Adani Enterprises has raised $500 million via a share sale to local insurance and mutual funds firms and an existing US based investor, two sources with direct knowledge said.
The share sale marks the company’s return to equity markets after it scrapped a $2.5 billion plan in February last year following a short-seller Hindenburg’s report accusing Adani Group of misusing offshore tax havens and stock manipulation. The group has denied the allegations.
The share sale launched on Wednesday was oversubscribed four times, receiving bids up to $2 billion, according to the sources, who asked not to be identified as the information is private.
US-based GQG Partners invested in the issue, the sources said.
Adani has also signed a pact to build and operate key electricity transmission lines in Kenya for 30 years, the African nation’s cabinet secretary for Energy Opiyo Wandayi said, reports PTI.
Reuters
