NE BUSINESS BUREAU
AHMEDABAD, SEP 2
City-based Adani Green Energy Ltd (AGEL) on Thursday announced that it has raised $750 million through a green bond to fund the equity for its under construction projects, a company release said on Thursday.
“Under the structure, AGEL can draw upto $1,700m (including the present issuance) over the course of time subject to the covenants of the structure. The notes were rated Ba3 (Stable) by Moodys,” the statement said.
This comes in the backdrop of AGEL buying Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp’s and Bharti Enterprises Ltd-owned solar power producer SB Energy India for an enterprise value of $3.5 billion. SB Energy India has a total renewable portfolio of 4.954 gigawatt (GW) spread across four states in India.
“The joint lead managers (JLMs) to the Issuance were Axis Bank, Barclays, BNP Paribas, DBS Bank Ltd., Emirates NBD Capital, IMI-Intesa Sanpaolo, MUFG, Mizuho Securities, SMBC Nikko and Standard Chartered Bank,” the statement added.
“In line with the Adani Group’s energy mix transition, AGEL has grown rapidly and has consistently demonstrated the strength of the company’s clean energy business model and its commitment to global benchmarks of ESG. It follows the guiding principles of United Nation Sustainable Development Goals, United Nation Global Compact and the Science Based Targets Initiative,” the statement said.
This comes in the backdrop of market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) making Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR) mandatory from financial year 2022-23 for the top 1000 listed firms. The disclosures are voluntary this year.
“With this $750 Mn ListCo issuance, AGEL has completed the final phase of its capital management plan, and now has a fully funded program for both debt and equity for its stated target of 25 GW by 2025,” the statement said.
France’s Total has invested $2.5 billion for acquiring a 50% stake in 2.35GW operating solar assets of AGEL and a 20% stake in AGEL. With 19.8 GW portfolio, the Adani-Total JV plans to commission 25GW by 2025.
“Raised $750 Mn through 3 year notes under the 144A / Reg S format. Funds to be used for equity portion of capex for under construction projects,” the statement said and added, “AGEL’s entire pipeline now fully funded putting it on track to be the world’s largest renewable energy platform by 2030.”
This comes in the backdrop of India’s solar and wind generation recording an all-time high of 43.1GW on 27 July. India also crossed the 100 GW milestone of installed renewable energy capacity.
“Strong overall order book of over $3,500 Mn (~4.7x over-subscription),” the statement added and said, “First bond issuance by the ListCo, Adani Green Energy Limited, following successful issuances by its subsidiaries RG1 and RG2 in 2019.”
As part of its energy transition efforts, India is working towards electrification of economy by developing action plans for greening of electricity. According to India’ apex power sector planning body Central Electricity Authority (CEA), by 2030, the country’s power requirement would be 817GW, more than half of which would be clean energy.
“Order Book made up of all round participation from Real Money Investors. Comprised 48% from Asia, 28% from Europe, Middle East and Africa and 24% from North America,” the statement said.
