<div>The sudden aggression from Adani Power in adding generation capacity by acquiring Lanco's Udupi Power is part of its strategy to consolidate at the right time to meet its own goals for growth, note industry observers. <br /><br />The 26-year old group, which is trying to become a global integrated infrastructure player by realigning its businesses two years ago, was lagging behind in its power generation production and capacity targets. As part of its Vision 2020, Adani Power targets 20,000 MW of power generation capacity and in the short term was targeting 9280 MW capacity by the end of 2013-2014 from 4,620 MW at the start of 2012. <br /><br />Adani Power's power plants are located at Mundra (4620 MW) in Gujarat, Tiroda (1980 MW) in Maharashtra and (1320 MW) at Kawai in Rajasthan. With the commissioning of the fourth unit of 660 MW at its Tiroda Power plant in Maharashtra in April, Adani Power's total installed capacity had increased to 8,620 MW to become the leading private power producer in the country overtaking Tata Power's 8613 Mw capacity.<br /><br />"We are confident of achieving a target of generating 9,240 MW of electricity by March 2014,” Gautam Adani, Chairman, Adani Group had said in December. Sources say Adani Power is targeting adding 5000 MW in near future through greenfield and acquired projects, despite its debt of over Rs 22,000 crore. Two weeks ago, Adani Power had attempted to takeover the hydro assets of Jaypee group, but lost out to Anil Ambani's Reliance Power. <br /><br />"Gautam Adani is one among the few buyers in the market place with deep pockets and can raise equity or debt in the current situation. Udupi Power is an operational power plant with cash flows, which makes it an attractive target for a buyer like Adani", says Sanjay Sethi, executive director- infrastructure, Kotak Investment Banking. <br /><br />He notes that while the sale of Udupi Power helps Lanco to get rid of Rs 4,000 crore debt from its books and an additional cash of Rs 2,000 crore, the buyout of an operational plant helps Adani get rid of the headaches of setting up a greenfield facility. "With many attractive brown field projects that are available for sale, it makes sense for Adani tolook at acquiring them rather than thinking of greenfield additions", says Sanjay Sethi. <br /><br />In FY 14 alone, Adani added 2640 MW, almost 15 per cent of the 17,000 MW added in the country that year. Adani Power commissioned two 660 MW units in the first quarter, one 660 MW unit in third quarter and one 660 MW unit in fourth quarter of FY14 -, two each at Tiroda in Maharashtra and at Kawai in Rajasthan, besides adding a 40 Mw solar power plant at Kutch in Gujarat. However, this was short of its target of 9280 Mw and with the acquisition of 1200 Mw Udupi Power, Adani's total installed capacity will now move up to 9820 MW.</div>
