Here’s a new line of funding for the renewable energy sector

Piramal Finance sanctions an additional Rs 700 crore to ACME Solar Holdings. Piramal Enterprises, through its subsidiary Piramal Finance (PFL), has sanctioned an additional Rs 700 crore to ACME Solar Holdings (ASHL). The deal was made through Corporate Finance Group (CFG) of Piramal Finance by introducing a new product – a Flexi Line of Credit – for the renewable energy sector. This aims to make a line of funding available to the borrower based on operational projects, with the flexibility to draw or repay during the tenure.   ACME is one of the largest independent power producers (IPP) in the solar energy space in the country with a portfolio of over 1.8 GW. The current operational capacity by July-end is over 1 GW, reaching 1.4 GW by September-end and the company is present across the 14 states. PFL had first invested Rs 499 crore with ACME in July 2016, together with its partner APG.   Khushru Jijina, Managing Director, Piramal Finance, says, “We are pleased to offer the second round of funding to ACME group with our unique ‘Flexi Line of Credit’. 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. Renewable energy has been one of the key focus area 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 that 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.” Manoj Kumar Upadhyay, Chairman and Managing Director, ACME Group, says, “We are happy to partner with Piramal for the second time over the last one year. 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.”    The CFG has been one of the early movers within the renewable energy space. CFG has diversified over time both in terms of sector and in offerings. CFG is now sector agnostic and offers capital across the risk curve including senior debt, acquisition finance, promoter finance, private equity exits alongside its previous focus on mezzanine investments. Though infrastructure which includes roads and renewables has been the focus so far, recently, the group has also funded corporates in cement, entertainment, security management, packaging and more recently, the auto components and logistics space.