New Delhi: In a successive bond raise issue, GIC Holdings Pte. Ltd and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) backed Greenko Energy Holdings raised $350 million through a corporate dollar bond on Wednesday to refinance debt at corporate level. The bond raise round followed after the Hyderabad-based firm raised $950 million last month, in one of the largest overseas green bonds raised by an Indian green energy firm. “Greenko has refinanced over $1.4 billion of debt from Indian banks, NBFCs (non banking financial institutions) and MFs (mutual funds) in this difficult market, including equity equity round of $835 million," said a person aware of the development requesting anonymity. It had raised $1 billion through dollar denominated bonds in 2017. The investments in Greenko amount to around $2.25 billion of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Indian green energy space. The two sovereign funds have so far infused $2.2 billion into Greenko, which was founded by Mahesh Kolli and Anil Kumar Chalamalasetty. A Greenko spokesperson couldn’t be immediately contacted. In what is being marked as a turning point for India’s green economy, investments in the country’s renewable energy sector doubled over the last five years to around $20 billion in 2018, surpassing the capital expenditure in the thermal power sector, according to a joint study by Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) and Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW). This comes in the backdrop of India’s additional clean energy investment requirement of around $80 billion till 2022, growing more than three-fold to $250 billion during 2023-30. Greenko owns operating assets of 4.2 gigawatts (GW) and under-construction assets of 7 GW. Greenko’s bond issuance comes at a time when India’s emerging green economy will require additional investments of around $80 billion till 2022, growing more than threefold to $250 billion during 2023-30. Indian companies have been raising debt from overseas markets to take advantage of lower interest rates. Last year, Indian companies had raised $6.3 billion through dollar denominated bonds, down 51.7% from the previous year as the number of bond sales more than halved, according to data from Thomson Reuters. While GIC and ADIA hold 61% and 15%, respectively, in Greenko, Kolli and Chalamalasetty own the remaining 24%. India is ranked fourth and fifth, globally, in installed capacities for wind and solar power, respectively. India has become one of the top renewable producers globally with ambitious capacity expansion plans.
Greenko Energy has raised $350m in funding via overseas corporate green bonds. The investment came from GIC Holdings and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) sovereign wealth fund. The latest funding follows a $950m round in July, with the combined investment set to be used to refinance $1.4bn of debt from domestic entities. This latest bonds issue brings GIC and ADIA's investment in Greenko to a combined $2.2bn. Greenko owns 4.2 GW of operating assets as well as 7 GW renewable capacity under construction.