Mubasher: Macquarie Infrastructure & Real Assets, State-run natural gas company GAIL, and energy firm NTPC were among other businesses which expressed interest in acquiring renewable energy assets of Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS), a news report said.

IL&FS, India’s leading infrastructure financier, expects to fetch as much as $1.14 billion from selling its wind and solar assets, Bloomberg said, citing sources familiar with the matter.

The Mumbai-headquartered firm runs 300 megawatts (MW) of solar projects under construction, while it has wind plants with a capacity of 873.5 MWs, with further units in progress with a planned capacity of 104 MWs.

Arpwood Capital and JM Financial were named as advisors for IL&FS on the asset sales, the news agency said, citing an emailed statement from the group last November.

The asset sales would revive IL&FS, whose debt pile reached $12.6 billion as of the end of last March.

The debt-laden company has been defaulting on loans and bonds since last August, stoking fears of contagion across the financial system of India.

GAIL India and the Solar Energy Corporation of India expressed their interest in IL&FS, Bloomberg reported, noting that the talks are still at an early stage.

GAIL aims to enter the photovoltaic (PV) plants and battery charging station market.

As the Indian government planned a sweeping shift to electric vehicles (EV) by 2030, the natural gas distributor is concerned that its presence in the natural gas network could be costly.