“We have zeroed in on a European partner from two with whom we were talking,” Bharat Heavy Chairman K. Ravi Kumar said. “The partner will be offered about 30 percent equity. We are still negotiating some terms.”
India plans to increase its installed nuclear generation capacity by 10-fold to 40,000 MW by 2020 after a global ban on nuclear trade with the nation was lifted in September 2008.
Kumar said the two state-owned companies hold 50% each in the planned venture and will sell equal stakes to the overseas partner. The venture is yet to be named, as per Rohit Singh, BHEL’s spokesman.
In March 2009, NPCIL said it will borrow EUR3 billion in overseas debt to fund a project to be built in partnership with Areva S.A. The project at Jaitapur in western India will be using overseas equipment after the nuclear-trade ban was lifted in 2008.
