Adani Group said it appointed Anil Sardana, who stepped down as Tata Power CEO three months ago, as the new CEO of its power transmission and distribution business just as it gets ready to take on the Tatas in Mumbai.
Two months ago, Adani announced an agreement to purchase the transmission and distribution business of Reliance Infrastructure in Mumbai for Rs 18,800 cr.
Reliance Infrastructure and Tata Power are the two main players in the power distribution business in Mumbai, and have been fighting to retain and expand their footprint in the mega city for several years. The fight had largely started tilting in favor of the Tatas in recent years.
The addition of Sardana to the leadership is likely to help Adani turn around the business and give tough competition to his former firm.
“He (Sardana) joins us at a very critical phase when the company has recently entered the power distribution space with the acquisition of the Mumbai GTD business,” said Gautam Adani, Chairman, Adani Group .
“He will play an important role in taking our Transmission business to new heights,” he added.
Anil Sardana comes with over 3 decades of experience in the power and infrastructure sector.
He started his career with NTPC and subsequently worked with BSES and Tata Group companies in the power and Infra sector, ranging from generation, power systems design, power distribution, telecom and project management.
He is an honours graduate in Electrical Engineering from Delhi University.