Tata Power to set up JV with South Africa's Exxaro

Country's largest private power producer Tata Power today said it will form a 50:50 joint venture with South African firm Exxaro to develop projects in in Africa.

Tata Power through its subsidiary, Khopoli Investments Ltd, and South African diversified resources company Exxaro announced the JV, which will be called Cennerji (Pty) Ltd, a company release said.

Cennergi, based in South Africa, will focus on areas such as feasibility, development, ownership and operations of electricity generation projects in South Africa, Botswana and Namibia, it said.

"Cennergi has been created by companies from developing nations to serve developing nations. We expect Cennergi to play a key role in African electricity generation market," Sipho Nkosi, Exxaro Chief Executive Officer said.

"Tata Power is happy to pursue new avenues in the international space by partnering with good local entities. The joint venture is consistent with our strategy of pursuing growth opportunities for energy development in potential markets," Anil Sardana, Managing Director, Tata Power said.

The initial project pipeline focuses on renewable energy projects in South Africa and Cennergi's strategy is to create a balanced portfolio of generation assets.

The generation capacity of Tata Power is about 4,772 MW from all sources of energy.
It has also acquired 30 per cent stake in coal companies at Indonesia and is developing the 4,000 MW Ultra Mega Power Project at Mundra in Gujarat.

Shares of Tata Power were trading at Rs 113.80, down 1.56 per cent on the BSE.