Larsen & Toubro Ltd.

India’s biggest engineering company L&T may borrow as much as $4.4 billion to build a power-generation business and is considering buying coalmines in Australia and Indonesia to gain fuel supplies. 
 
The parent company, which builds power plants on contract, is looking to diversify into generation after it acquired the expertise to manufacture large boilers and turbines through a joint venture with Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. The venture at Surat in western India is scheduled to begin producing boilers by April and turbines in June. 
 
Larsen may consider listing its power unit on Indian exchanges to help raise funds in the future. The company has begun work on a 1,320-megawatt coal-fired plant at Rajapura in the state of Punjab. The project’s first phase of 660 megawatts will begin generation by the end of 2013. The company is scouting for locations to build more projects and will bid to build large power projects capable of producing as much as 4,000 megawatts being auctioned by the Indian government.