MAY 20239Canadian investment firm Brookfield has acquired a 51 percent share in CleanMax Enviro (CleanMax Solar), a provider of renewable energy to commercial and industrial clients. The company's equity is worth between 3,500 and 4,000 crores. With a little amount of primary infusion into the company, the investment will primarily consist of existing shareholders selling their shares on a secondary market.This will be Brookfield's second renewal in as many months after they agreed to invest $1 billion in Vineet Mittal's serial entrepreneur-run Avaada Ventures. On March 20, Brookfield and CleanMax began secret negotiations for a deal that would make Brookfield the largest shareholder in the business. Kuldeep Jain, the creator of CleanMax, and US-based investor Augment Infrastructure will hold the remaining 49 percent stake. The total investment made by Brookfield in the transaction, including the initial injection and secondary equity purchase, is close to Rs. 2,500 crore."The agreement was just inked, and an official announcement is forthcoming. As a result, Brookfield gains control over the organisation, which is the biggest C&I (commercial and industrial) player in India. 350 MW of wind power is among the more than 1,600 MW of operating capacity that CleanMax possesses. With a foothold in the UAE, Thailand, and Bahrain, CleanMax has also increased its activities in emerging countries. Brookfield would have over 9 GW of varied renewable energy assets, including wind, solar, and hybrid assets, in seven distinct Indian states at varying levels of operation and development. Kuldeep Jain established CleanMax in 2011. Leading technology firms like NTT, Cisco, Facebook, and Singapore Telemedia are among its clients, as are sizable industrial clients like Ultratech, UPL, Tata Motors, Welspun, and Sansera. Hindustan Zinc Ltd.'s chief executive officer, Arun Misra, increasing the use of locally supplied coal, utilising digital projects for operational savings, and increasing volume will be the major enablers in lowering the production cost of zinc. Misra, "We have been using domestic coal from India as an offset against expensive imported coal". "Even though we were built to consume 30 percent of domestic coal, we were only getting 4-5 percent at first. Since it began to rise, it has increased by 17­20 percent yearly. The other enablers will be modifying contracts in a way that will lower mining rates and the use of digital projects that can provide real-time data to regulate consumption and improve operations.Additionally, the larger volume we anticipate for the following year will help us redistribute the fixed expenditures, lowering total costs, he added. According to projections made by the nation's largest zinc producer, the cost of producing zinc will drop from $1,257 per tonne in 2022­2023 to $1,125­1,175 per tonne in the current fiscal year. In addition, it is predicted that production of mined metal will increase this year from 1.06 million tonnes to 1.07­1.10 million tonnes.The lowest quarterly cost of production in FY23, its zinc production cost in January-March was $1,214 per tonne, a 6 percent decrease from the prior quarter. According to Misra, zinc demand in India will increase by 4-5 percent this year, with prices hovering around $2,800-$3,000 per tonne. "This is primarily due to some uncertainty regarding China's recovery process and overall there is a slowdown or inflation-related economic headwind in the US", the economist said. He estimated that the global demand of zinc may increase by 2.5 to 3.0 percent, and that as a result, "the prices will also continue to fluctuate in that zone only."Given the strong demand, the company which is also the fifth-largest silver producer in the world and the biggest in India sees prices rising from current levels. Hindustan Zinc's combined profit in FY23 reached an all-time high of Rs.10,511 crore, while sales also reached a record high of Rs.24,180 crore thanks to record mined metal production of more than a million tonnes. HINDUSTAN ZINC LTD ESTIMATES LOWER PRODUCTION COSTS IN FY24BROOKFIELD INCREASES ITS ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT & ACQUIRES A 51 PERCENT INTEREST IN CLEANMAX ENVIROTOP STORIES
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