New Delhi: Billionaires Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani have collaborated for the first time as the Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has picked 26% stake in Mahan Energen Ltd (MEL), a subsidiary of Adani Power Ltd.
As per a report published in The New Indian Express, the deal will give Reliance Industries 500 MW of electricity from MEL’s Madhya Pradesh-based power plants for captive use. According to RIL, the investment is in compliance with the provisions of the Electricity Rules, 2005, which say a captive user must own a 26% stake in the captive unit.
“One unit of 600 MW capacity of MEL’s Mahan thermal power plant, out of its aggregate operating and upcoming capacity of 2,800 MW, will be designated as the Captive Unit for this purpose,” Adani Power said in an exchange filing, as per the report. Further, RIL will pick up 5 crore equity shares with a face value of Rs 10 crore from MEL.
Recently, Bloomberg has reported that US investigators are investigating whether an Adani entity, or people linked to the company including Gautam Adani, were involved in paying officials in India for favourable treatment on an energy project.
Adani has a massive corporate footprint in India spanning ports to airports to power lines and highway contracts. The business conglomerate attracts capital globally. While Adani is eyeing to be the world’s largest renewable energy producer by 2030, Reliance is building four gigafactories at Jamnagar in Gujarat — one each for solar panels, batteries, green hydrogen, and fuel cells, a PTI report mentioned.
