Lenders to Adhunik Power and Natural Resources Ltd (APNRL) have put on sale the company’s 540-megawatt (MW) thermal power plant in Jharkhand, after agreeing to convert majority of loans to equity in December last year.

According to an invitation for expression of interest (EoI) by SBI Capital Markets, the interested bidder should acquire at least 51% stake and certain potential investors have already bid for the project based on bilateral discussions.

“SBI Capital Markets Limited has been mandated, by State Bank of India on behalf of consortium lenders, to identify a strategic investor for a company, currently operating a coal based sub-critical thermal power project of 540 MW (2 X 270 MW), set up at village Padampur and Srirampur, Jharkhand,” it read.

According to the document, the project achieved COD in June 2013. The cost of the project for phase I is R1,737 crore and for phase two is R1,640 crore (total project cost of R3,377 crore) which was financed with a debt equity ratio of 73:27, (Rs 6.25 crore per MW).

Apart from the promoters, two reputed private equity investors have also infused equity in the project and lenders to the project includes 24 banks and financial institutions led by SBI.

Adhunik Power has already acquired close to 540.81 acres of land for the project, it said. The company is headed by Naresh Goyal and is part of Adhunik Group, which has interests in steel manufacturing and power production.

Meanwhile, in February 2015, Brickwork Ratings had downgraded the company’s long-term and short-term credit facilities. Plant efficiency has been on the lower side with the plant load factor for phase I expected to be around 65% for FY15 and that of phase II is expected to be lower, the agency noted. It said the company’s negative cash flows company have been managed by increasing their term loans offtake.

FE had earlier reported that a State Bank of India-led consortium of around 12 banks, in November 2014, initiated a corrective action plan — under the joint lenders’ forum — since the firm had delayed repayments by more than 60 days.