BWI: IDFC and IDEAcarbon Enter into Alliance to Enhance Carbon Market Mechanisms in India

Press release from Business Wire India
Source: Infrastructure Development Finance Company Limited
Tuesday, April 06, 2010 09:07 PM IST (03:37 PM GMT)
Editors: General: Consumer interest, Environment; Business: Advertising, PR & marketing, Chemicals, Construction, Energy companies, Major diversified industrial groups, Real estate
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IDFC and IDEAcarbon Enter into Alliance to Enhance Carbon Market Mechanisms in India


Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, Tuesday, April 06, 2010 -- (Business Wire India) -- Infrastructure Development Finance Company Ltd. (IDFC) and IDEAcarbon, the company that instituted ratings of carbon assets, signed a strategic working alliance today to encourage the adoption of ratings of environmental assets by market participants and develop other products to help a structured growth of the Indian carbon market.

IDEAcarbon, that owns The Carbon Rating Agency, is a pioneer in creating efficiency measures for the global carbon market and its alliance with IDFC follows IDEAcarbon's recently sealed Strategic Alliance with an ICRA group company, ICRA Online, to provide the Indian carbon market participants independent and reliable ratings of carbon assets and in turn help them manage risks. IDEAcarbon's market collaboration envisaged under its working alliance with IDFC is geared to enhance the market usage of such carbon asset ratings, and develop other market instruments such as CER indices, carbon market related research and educational products, and building carbon trading mechanisms.

IDFC and IDEAcarbon will jointly structure and effect an appropriate corporate structure in India for expanding offerings of IDEAcarbon Companies' products and services, including setting up of entities in India to cover ratings and other services. Significantly, the collaboration between IDFC and IDEAcarbon envisages IDFC integrating ratings of environmental assets as one of the tools in its appraisal process, marking its proactive efforts in adopting best practices and facilitating a disciplined development of the growing carbon market.

Reiterating the importance of this development, Dr. Rajiv Lall, MD and CEO of IDFC said, "Transparency and benchmarks for risk are essential for an efficient carbon market, for the development of market mechanisms to have an impact on mitigating climate change and managing the low carbon imperative. IDFC's relationship with IDEAcarbon is a significant enabler for us and the Indian market."

"We are very pleased to see the leadership being shown by IDFC in the environment and sustainability space in India, and their sound recognition of and endorsement of the tools necessary to cause a significant institutionalization of the carbon and infrastructure markets in India", said Mr Shandi J. Modi, founder and CEO of IDEAcarbon.

About IDFC Ltd.

Infrastructure Development Finance Company Limited (IDFC) is one of India's premier financial services institutions with a special focus on infrastructure. IDFC was set up in 1997 by the Government of India to act as a financier and catalyst for the private sector's involvement in infrastructure development in India. Over the last 12 years and more so since the company's initial public offering in 2005, IDFC has pursued a strategy to evolve into a 'one stop shop' for infrastructure finance in India, capable of meeting the increasingly complex and ambitious requirements of an expanding client base.

IDFC's business strategy involves participating in all parts of the value chain of infrastructure and providing a differentiated value proposition to its clients. IDFC's domain expertise in infrastructure combined with its product breadth across project financing, investment banking and asset management enables it to provide creative solutions to its clients' needs. IDFC has strong relationships with the private sector and government which enables it to play an important role in providing objective advice and facilitating public-private partnerships in infrastructure. IDFC is focused on contributing to evolving the right policies and frameworks to ensure sustainable infrastructure development in India. IDFC Foundation is actively involved in training various central, state and local government officials regarding public-private partnerships, the policy group provides thought leadership and advice on infrastructure policy and governance issues and the CSR team is focused on sustainable development strategies.

IDFC has played an important role in facilitating private sector involvement in Indian infrastructure and has financed over 200 projects across core infrastructure sectors such as power, roads and telecommunications. IDFC Group has mobilized and committed over $ 5 billion in debt and $ 3 billion in equity to infrastructure companies and projects in India. IDFC has demonstrated strong financial performance over the last 5 years with profits after tax increasing at a CAGR of 25% to Rs. 750 crores in FY 2009, net worth of Rs.6,176 crores, balance sheet size of approximately Rs.30,000 crores and market capitalization of approximately Rs.22,000 crores.

About IDEAcarbon and The Carbon Rating Agency

IDEAcarbon, with its head offices in the U.K, is an independent and professional provider of ratings, research and strategic advice on carbon finance. Founded by Shandi Modi, CEO and Ian Johnson, Chair and formerly Vice President of the World Bank, it is part of the IDEAgroup whose advisors include Lord Nick Stern and Nitin Desai. Its services are designed to provide leading financial institutions, corporations, governments, traders and developers with intelligence and analysis of the factors that affect the pricing of carbon market assets. The IDEAcarbon team are leading experts in the carbon and energy markets. They combine policy and financial intelligence with proprietary tools for the analysis of credit risk. Their techniques assist their clients to manage and mitigate risk in today's uncertain global carbon markets. For more information please visit: www.ideacarbon.com

The Carbon Rating Agency is a wholly owned subsidiary of IDEAcarbon. Its mission is to improve the functioning and efficiency of the carbon markets. The Carbon Rating Agency's ratings and opinions are unencumbered and independent - it does not trade, buy, sell or originate carbon credits. Further details of the Carbon Rating Agency's approach to rating carbon assets are available at www.carbonratingsagency.com

Disclaimer:

All information contained herein has been obtained by IDEAcarbon from sources believed by it to be accurate and reasonable. Although reasonable care has been taken to ensure that the information herein is true, such information is provided 'as is' without any warranty of any kind, and IDEAcarbon in particular, makes no representation or warranty, express or implied, as to the accuracy, timeliness or completeness of any such information. All information contained herein must be construed solely as statements of opinion.




CONTACT DETAILS
Matt O'Leary, Kreab Gavin Anderson, +020 7074 1800, ideacarbon@kreabgavinanderson.com
Renfeng Zhao, Kreab Gavin Anderson, +020 7074 1800, ideacarbon@kreabgavinanderson.com
Ravi P Muthreja, IDFC, +919004302000 / +919820090999, ravi.muthreja@idf.com

KEYWORDS
CONSUMER, ENVIRONMENT, MARKETING, CHEMICALS, CONSTRUCTION, ENERGY, GROUPS, REAL ESTATE

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