INDIA BUSINESS WORLD - OCTOBER 21^st - NOVEMBER 15^th - 2007

JSW ENERGY TRANSFERS 75% SHARES TO CYPRUS HOLDING CO

SAJJAN Jindal group is transferring 75% equity stake in the power sector arm JSW Energy to a Cyprus-based holding firm. JSW Energy was originally a joint venture between OP Jindal group and Belgium's Tractebel, and subsequently Jindals acquired the foreign partner's stake. The company, which is planning to come up with an initial public offer(IPO) to raise about Rs 1,000 crore in the near future, has investments in various power generation projects apart from power trading and transmission companies of the group.

Cyprus-based Portview Investments is picking 75% stake in JSW Energy from its existing shareholders for an undisclosed amount. At face value of Rs 10 each the shares being transferred would have a value of about Rs 260 crore. Currently, the promoters holding is split between domestic (91.6%) and foreign holding entities (8.4%). While four domestic holding entities are transferring their combined equity stake of about 66.6% in JSW Energy to Portview Investments, the entire existing foreign holding through two Mauritius-based firms is also being transferred to Portview.

After this transaction, JSW Energy would become a foreign-owned Indian holding-cum operating company. This would also mean that downstream investments to be made by JSW Energy would not be financed through domestic borrowings by the company.

JSW Energy owns and operates an independent power plant in Karnataka with a capacity of 260 mw and also provides operations and maintenance services to power plants of JSW Steel. This apart, it has equity stakes in various power sector companies including generation firms such as Raj WestPower.