India's breeze billionaire Tulsi Tanti wants the world to be his playground, and after US and China, he is looking at new opportunities in India, where big orders of over 256 MW is coming from realty major DLF, and of course from around the world.
"Our order book now has orders from Brazil, South Africa. Repower also has an order book of $1.6billion as well. US is an important market but now we will looking at Europe. Europe means 21 countries for us. Latin America and African markets are also attractive," said Tulsi Tanti, CMD, Suzlon Energy.
But Tanti is not just looking at diversifying his geographical spread, he is looking at diversifying his business as well and for a group that relies so much on sea transportation shipping could well be the next natural business extension.
NDTV has learnt that Tanti is all set to acquire a shipping asset in South East Asia and is looking at Thailand's SC Inter Service Company, which has over 20 cargo ships. Even though the vehicle and quantum of the deal is still not clear, sources say close to a $100 million payout is likely.
"We charter ships at the moment. We don't own any asset at the moment and we can't comment on this. We will let you know when there is anything," added Tanti.
With over 500 million raised via FCCB's and a QIP in place, Suzlon has cash in its books and is using that to buyout Areva's 30% stake over the next 10 months. He plans to buy out Martifer's stake as well at he says he's not buying back at a premium.
"We have bought out Areva by May 2009 and we will buy the residual stake of our Portuguese partner in RE Power. I can't give you too much details on the price but we will not be paying too much," Tanti further added.
So from harnessing the wind to make the moolah to spreading into shipping, Tulsi Tanti wants an energy empire. But analysts worry with orders getting scrapped in a key market like US and leading clients like Edison or Deere reviewing Suzlon's turbines, will there be a big crack in Tanti's windmill empire?