Piramal Finance sanctions Rs700 crore more ACME Solar Holdings

Bengaluru: Piramal Finance Ltd, a subsidiary of Piramal Enterprises Ltd, has sanctioned an additional Rs700 crore to renewable energy firm ACME Solar Holdings Ltd through its non-real estate lending arm Corporate Finance Group (CFG).

The financing has been done through a new “flexi line of credit” product which has been introduced for the renewable energy sector. It aims to make a line of funding available to the borrower on the basis of operational projects, with the flexibility to draw or repay during the tenure.

Piramal Finance, along with its partner Dutch pension fund asset manager APG Asset Management, had first invested Rs499 crore in ACME in July 2016.

In 2014, Piramal Enterprises and APG said they would invest $1 billion in India’s high-growth infrastructure sector over the next three to four years.

“ACME has a strong track record of execution, with projects spread across the country, which reduces the off-take risk, and has signed PPAs for the complete portfolio. In addition, our first round of funding has already seen pre-payments taking place in a short span of time. They are among the best managed renewable energy companies in the country, in terms of quality of portfolio and growth,” said Khushru Jijina, managing director, Piramal Finance.

“Renewable energy has been one of the key focus areas for our group and Piramal has benefited by being one of the early movers in the sector. Given the government’s focus on clean energy, we believe, renewables will be one of the key contributors to the energy requirement of the country and Piramal is committed to continued investments in sustainable energy in the near future,” Jijina said.

ACME is a large independent power producer (IPP) in solar energy space in the country with a portfolio of over 1.8 gigawatts (GW) and is present across 14 states.

“The current funding provides us with the required flexibility to invest in solar and electric transportation business and ensure timely completion of projects. Given the growth dynamics of the renewable space in India we believe renewables would constitute major portion of India’s installed capacity,” ACME group chairman and managing director Manoj Kumar Upadhyay said in a statement.

ACME Group has appointed two investment banks as it starts work on a plan to raise money via an infrastructure investment trust (InvIT), Mint reported on 16 June. InvITs are trusts that manage income-generating infrastructure assets, offering investors regular yields and a liquid way to invest in infrastructure projects.

Piramal’s Corporate Finance Group offers capital across the risk curve and looks at a range of sectors such as infrastructure (roads and renewable), cement, entertainment, security management, packaging and, more recently, the auto components and logistics space.