Debjoy Sengupta
BlackRock, the world’s largest money manager with $7 trillion under management, will cut its equity in Coal India Ltd to zero by the middle of the year, becoming the latest in the list of 100 major banks and insurers exiting the thermal coal sector.
Among the technologies, solar accounted for 216 tenders with a 73.7% share, followed by thermal with 33 tenders and an 11.3% share and hydro with 20 tenders and a 6.8% share.
India led the activity in Q4 2019 with 1,078 tenders and a share of 58.7%, up 4.2% over the previous quarter and up 12% when compared with the last four-quarter average, followed by the Philippines with 309 tenders and a share of 16.8% and Bangladesh with 184 tenders and a share of 10% during the quarter.
“With the acceleration of the global energy transition, we do not believe that the long-term economic or investment rationale justifies continued investment in this sector," the world’s largest money manager with $1.8 trillion in assets under management, said in a letter to its clients.
PFC becomes the first Indian public sector company to issue senior unsecured US-dollar bonds with a tenure of more than 10 years.
Coal Mines Provident Fund Organisation commissioner Animesh Bharti told ET: “Following a recent resolution by the trustee board of the CMPFO, coal companies will soon be asked to make voluntary contribution of Rs 10 per tonne of coal produced.
Potential areas of cooperation shall include technical advisory by CMPDIL for works undertaken by SBICap and financial advisory by SBICap for works undertaken by CMPDIL related to due diligence, advisory, consultancy services for acquisition, development and related activities for coal, minerals and natural resources sector among others.
The board of director of NTPC cleared the project in 2018 which involved scrapping the existing six units at the thermal power station totalling 460 mw comprising of 4 units of 60 mw and 2 units of 110 mw.
The ministry cleared 14 of the 23 projects it considered. This is likely to help Coal India meet its targets of producing 750 million tonnes next fiscal requiring achievement of a 14% growth over current year’s 660 million tonnes target, and one billion tonnes target by 2024.
According to recent reports the PMO has proposed waiver of the coal cess, the savings from which is to be used for retrofitting pollution curbing equipment.
Copyright © 2020 Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All rights reserved. For reprint rights: Times Syndication Service
