Solar panel manufacturers Vikram Solar and Waaree Energies have appointed investment banks for their respective initial public offerings (IPOs) as the firms look to develop business riding the drive for local manufacturing.
Both the firms, Vikram Solar and Waaree Energies, aim to raise about Rs 1,500 crore each.
Vikram Solar has hired JM Financial and has begun working on its IPO while Waaree Energies has hired Axis Capital and ICICI Securities for its IPO, one of the three people told the media. While both firms aim to raise capital to fund improving their manufacturing capacities, in the case of Vikram Solar, a substantial part of the profits will move towards decreasing its debt. Waaree Energies practically is debt-free currently.
There is a strong government push to increase domestic manufacturing of solar panels, given the huge capacities that India aims to establish in the coming years, and so far, there has been a huge dependence on imports of solar panels, notably from China. The government’s goals to bring in high duties on imports of cells and solar panels is a big boost for domestic manufacturers, the second person mentioned above said.
India is running the world’s largest clean energy programme to reach 175 GW of renewable capacity, comprising 100GW of solar power by 2022. As per the Central Electricity Authority, by 2030, the country’s power demand would reach 817 GW, more than half of which would be clean energy; of this, 280 GW would be from solar energy alone.
To accomplish the aim of 280 GW, about 25 GW of solar power capacity is required to be established every year till 2030.
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