Indian Solar price may be 10% below coal power rates by 2020: report

Solar Power will be a significant energy source  &  prices could be 10% lower than coal power prices by 2020 and help revitalize India’s energy sector, said a report released  by consulting firm KPMG.

With India making ambitious moves,   the market penetration of   Solar Power expected to be  5.7% (54 Giga Watt-GW) by 2020 and 12.5% (166 GW) by 2025.  The  report  predicted  with increase in solar generation  the price   could fall  to  INR 4.2 per kWh (kilowatt-hour) by 2020 and as low as INR 3.59 per kWh by 2025  which will be much lower than  coal power.

 

Solar power price declines have beaten the expectations  since the beginning of 2015. In the ongoing NTPC solar park tender, solar prices have breached the Rs.5 kilowatt-hour mark and this is a landmark for the energy sector.

Along with wind power, renewable energy could constitute a significant 20% of India’s lower power mix in energy terms by 2025.

Pfizer regains pole position by acquiring Allergan in a $160B deal.

Pfizer and Allergan are joining in the biggest buyout of the year, a $160 billion stock deal that will create the world's largest drugmaker. The deal is the latest and the largest to be aimed at helping an American company lower its taxes by reincorporating overseas, a practice known as a corporate inversion. The transaction would be structured as a so-called reverse merger, in which Allergan, the smaller of the two companies, would technically be the buyer.

Pfizer will keep its global operational headquarters in New York but   its legal domicile and principal executive offices in Ireland.  Legacy Pfizer expected to lead the combined company which will be called Pfizer Plc, which would have more than $63 billion in combined sales and a product portfolio that includes Viagra, Celebrex, Botox , Juvéderm and  about 110,000 employees worldwide.

Under the terms of the all-share deal, Pfizer would essentially pay $363.63 for each Allergan share .  Allergan shareholders would receive 11.3 shares of Pfizer for each share of Allergan they hold. Pfizer shareholders would receive one share in the combined company for each share they hold, but have the option to take up to $12 billion in cash for some or all of their shares instead.

Pfizer Inc. Chairman and CEO Ian Read will serve in the same roles with the combined company while Allergan Plc. leader Brent Saunders will become president and chief operating officer. The combined company’s board would consist of 15 directors, with Pfizer’s 11 current directors and 4 directors from Allergan.

After the transaction, Pfizer shareholders are expected to own about 56 percent of the combined company, with the remaining 44 percent owned by Allergan shareholders The combined entity expected to achieve more than $2 billion in annual cost savings over the first three years after the deal closes.

Pfizer said that it expected the combined company’s adjusted tax rate to be between 17 percent and 18 percent by the first year after the deal is finalized. Last year, Pfizer’s tax rate was about 26.5 percent, and it is expected to be about 25 percent this year. By comparison, Allergan reported a tax rate of just 4.8 percent for 2014 and is expected to have a tax rate this year of about 15 percent.

Pfizer, based in New York, has engaged in several large deals in recent years, buying Wyeth in a $68 billion  deal and  Hospira, a maker of generic treatments, for about $17 billion this year.

Allergan was created through several mergers since 2012 that included the drug makers Forest Laboratories, Actavis and Warner Chilcott.

The deal would enable Pfizer to surpass  Novartis AG  and regain the industry's top spot.