News
Energy Ministry asks Adani Green Energy to provide official notification
View(s):By Namini Wijedasa
Sri Lanka’s Energy Ministry has requested Adani Green Energy Sri Lanka Ltd (AGESLL) to provide official notification within two weeks as to whether its parent company, India’s Adani Green Energy Ltd (AGEL), has withdrawn the investment it had committed towards two wind power plants in Mannar and Pooneryn.
“We have written to the local company to reply in two weeks what their investment is, and whether they will put the investment back,” said Energy Ministry Secretary Udayanga Hemapala told The Sunday Times. “If the investment is withdrawn, we have to cancel the project.”
On February 12, AGEL wrote to the Board of Investment (BOI) in Colombo that it had decided to “respectfully withdraw from the said project” after learning that Sri Lanka would constitute a fresh Cabinet Appointed Negotiating Committee (CANC) and a Project Committee to renegotiate the proposal to build the two plants (a total of 484MW).
The letter was leaked to media and widely reported. But Sri Lanka’s Energy Ministry was not formally informed that the project was shelved. While AGEL interacts with the BOI, the Ministry’s dealings are with AGESLL, the local company, to whom an energy permit has already been issued for the Pooneryn plant and provisional approval granted for the Mannar plant.
“Legally, our agreements are with the local company and they tell us that the Indian company will continue with the investment,” Prof Hemapala recounted. “But the Indian company has said they have withdrawn the investment. The local company must tell us that, ‘From this point we cannot do the project because the investment is not there’. They have not told us that yet. We cannot do anything until we get legal (legitimate) notice.”
Meanwhile, AGEL made a filing with the National Stock Exchange of India Limited on February 13 clarifying a news report headlined “Adani Green Energy shares surge 3% amid report of Sri Lanka wind power project withdrawal’.
It said: “The price of the scrip of Adani Green Energy Limited increased by 3.15% to previous closing price. In this regard, we wish to clarify that a subsidiary of the Company had in past expressed its interest to set-up certain wind power projects and its association transmission infrastructure projects in Sri Lanka and had undertaken certain studies for the same.”
(A scrip in the stock market describes a document given to stockholders showing that they should receive a certain number of stocks. Scrips are used as alternatives to cash dividends in the stock market).
“No definitive agreement was executed by the Company or its subsidiary,” the filing states. “We have now respectfully withdrawn from further engagement for these projects in Sri Lanka. However, we continue to remain committed to Sri Lanka and are open to future collaboration, if the Government of Sri Lanka so desires.”
But Prof Hemapala told India’s The Hindu newspaper this week that any outreach on such a future investment must come from the company’s side, and not Sri Lanka’s: “The company has decided to withdraw from the project, it is their call. We are now in the process of addressing the legal requirements after they decided to close the project. But if the company wishes to return, and commits an investment through the BOI, we are open to talking to them based on our position that the tariff must be lower.”
While the government is keen to bring in foreign investments to Sri Lanka, it would not lobby any specific investor, he also said, adding, “We welcome all investors through proper channels, they must follow due process. We will ensure that the investments are beneficial to our people.”
The best way to say that you found the home of your dreams is by finding it on Hitad.lk. We have listings for apartments for sale or rent in Sri Lanka, no matter what locale you're looking for! Whether you live in Colombo, Galle, Kandy, Matara, Jaffna and more - we've got them all!