Nuclear power-focused Core Energy Systems raises Rs 200 cr funding

Pankaj Prasoon and Ashish Kacholia, along with a consortium of "strategic investors aligned with India's long-term national goals", have invested Rs 200 crore in the company as part of the current round, it said.

Engineering, procurement and construction services provider Core Energy Systems on Wednesday announced a Rs 200 crore fund raise from a clutch of investors.

The over 20-year-old EPC company, which is currently refurbishing India's oldest nuclear facility at Tarapur near here, aims to utilise the funding for expanding infrastructure and manufacturing and strengthening its capacity to deliver large-scale nuclear projects.

The funding will also reinforce efforts supporting India's Small Modular Reactor (SMR) and Bharat Modular Reactor (BMR) programmes, a statement said.

Pankaj Prasoon and Ashish Kacholia, along with a consortium of "strategic investors aligned with India's long-term national goals", have invested Rs 200 crore in the company as part of the current round, it said.

"This investment gives muscle to our commitment to shaping India's civil nuclear future," the company's managing director, Nagesh Basarkar, said.

The statement said given the country's ambitions of upping nuclear power generation capacity to 100 GW from the present 8.88 GW, the company is well positioned to develop indigenous materials to be used in the sector and fostering global tie-ups to up the supply chain.

IDBI Capital Markets C Securities (ICMS) has exited after supporting the company through its Maharashtra Defence and Aerospace Venture Fund (MDAVF).

ICMS senior vice president Amey Belorkar said the company's achievements in sensitive domains like nuclear and defence demonstrate the powerful impact of strategic capital.

Core will also scale production of advanced defence subsystems, localise cutting-edge technologies through global partnerships and deliver high-reliability solutions for India's strategic sectors going ahead, the statement said.