Colruyt plans to invest Rs 1,000 crore in India

After setting up its IT development centre in Hyderabad, Belgian retail giant Colruyt Group is gearing up to make a big splash in the renewable energy space in India and has lined up an investment of around INR 800 crore to INR 1,000 crore for the next two years. Mr Hari Subramanian, head (India operations), Colruyt Group said that “As a group, we already have 1.5 GW of installed capacity of wind energy in Belgium. We want to bring that capability and expertise to India. Over the next one to two years, we will invest anywhere between INR 800 crore to INR 1,000 crore. We will be an independent power producer (IPP) and are looking at capacities of around 100 to 150 MW in the first two years in India.” The group plans to set up a separate entity for it's India renewable energy venture, which will also be headquartered in Hyderabad, Mr Subramanian said, adding that the company is already working on aspects like talent acquisition and office space. He pointed out that that the company is also open to setting up solar projects but the first few projects will be in the wind energy space and will be set up in the southern part of the country. He added that each wind project will have the capacity of around 30 to 50 MW. Giving additional details about its plans in the renewable energy space, the company’s senior official said that in the first few projects, the group plans to outsource the engineering, procurement, construction part to larger players. Meanwhile, he added that in the coming days Colruyt Group is also keen on collaborating as well as investing in startups in the area of health tech and agri tech, among others in India. In the first quarter of 2018, the group may set up a fund for the same. Speaking about the development centre, he said there are 435 employees working at the centre and expects the headcount to grow by 10 to 15% in the next year.