Indian power producer Acme Solar Holding Private Limited has raised USD334m by issuing offshore dollar-denominated green bonds, as reported by Mint on July 30. The bonds have a five-year tenor and a 4.7% coupon rate and will be listed on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading. The issuance received a great response from investors, oversubscribed by more than three times. Acme Solar will use the amount raised to finance 12 of its photovoltaic (PV) projects with a combined capacity of 405MW in eight Indian states, through subscribing to rupee-denominated non-convertible debentures (NCDs) issued by those projects.
India set a target to achieve a renewable energy capacity of 450GW by 2030 with 280GW from solar power, while by this February, the total renewables capacity was 94.43GW. Acme Solar, founded in 2003, is a leading company in the solar PV power generation industry in India. The company now has a total solar energy capacity of 4.8GW, including 2.2GW in operation and another 2.6GW under construction. Most recently, in early June, Norway’s Scatec [SSO:NO] acquired the half of Acme Solar’s 900MW solar power project in Rajasthan, which is expected to have a total investment of USD400m and start operations in 2022. Later, Acme Solar received an equity investment from Denmark’s Investment Fund for Developing Countries (IFU) and United Nations Office for Project Services’ (UNOPS) S3i to finance its 250MW project in Rajasthan, which has a total value of nearly USD200m. In the same month, the company also closed another deal with Brookfield Renewable [BEP:US] to jointly set up a 450MW solar project in Rajasthan.
Sources:
https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/blossoming-green-bonds/article35062185.ece
https://www.ibef.org/industry/renewable-energy.aspx
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2021/07/30/acme-solar-raises-334-million-via-offshore-green-bonds/
https://www.pv-magazine-india.com/2021/06/03/scatec-enters-indian-solar-market/