The move comes close on the heels of Jardine Fleming's appointment as advisor to the strategic sale of Government holding in the power board. The board has been split into three companies, the others being the generation and transmission companies which will continue to be state-run.

Senior officals at Jardine Fleming India confirmed that TEC and BSES have evinced interest in the divestment. "The whole process involving the strategic sale will be done in two phases. In the first phase, we will offer advisory services which will dwell on financial restructuring. In the second phase, we will identify potential partners for the strategic sale. The whole process will take at least another six to eight months," the officials said.

Sources saidthat a few European and US-based power utilities have held initial talks with Jardine Fleming on the strategic sale. "All are likely to participate in the bidding process," the sources said.

The restructuring has been hastened as the World Bank has sanctioned loans of around $1 billion to the electricity board for the recast.

At present, Orissa, Haryana, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh have announced plans to offload Government holding in their SEBs.

With the Centre having allowed privatisation of the power distribution network, Orissa was the first state to dismantle its power board into different corporates managing power generation, transmission and distribution.

While the state has already divested part of the equity in the Orissa Power Generation Company, it had invited private companies to take a 51 per cent stake in the four distribution utilities set up by splitting the Grid Corporation of Orissa (Gridco).

BSES and TEC have taken management control of the four distribution companies which wereformed after Gridco was split into four separate zones.

BSES acquired a 51 per cent stake in three state-owned power distribution entities for Rs 117 crore. TEC, on the other hand, paid around Rs 41 crore to take control of the fourth company.