Azure Power Planning to Issue a USD 350 Million Green Bond

By Ayush Verma/ Updated On Thu, Sep 19th, 2019

Azure Power will issue a USD 350 million green bond offering, to use the proceeds to refinance existing indebtedness.

Azure Green Bond

Azure Power Solar Energy, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Azure Power Global, a leading independent solar power producer in India, will issue a USD 350,101,000 green bond offering, maturing in 2024 with an expected US Dollar coupon of 5.65 percent.

The Bond has been certified by Climate Bonds Initiative as a Green Bond and is the second solar Green Bond to be offered by the company. The company expects to primarily use the proceeds to refinance existing indebtedness.

The Bond is offered to eligible yield investors who have a specific mandate or portfolio for buying green bonds, and in each case who are qualified institutional buyers.

In August, we reported that the firm had won the right to develop a 300 MW Inter-State Transmission System (ISTS) solar power project, in a Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) auction.

Post this win, the company reported that it has a portfolio of 1.5 GW of ISTS sovereign credit off-take projects, which is the largest such portfolio in the country. Moreover, the company is expected to sign a 25-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with SECI to supply power at a tariff of Rs 2.54 per kWh. The project is likely to be commissioned by 2021 and can be developed outside a solar park anywhere in the country.

Prior to this capacity win the company had announced the appointment of Ranjit Gupta as chief executive officer (CEO) and a member of the Board, after Inderpreet S Wadhwa, who founded Azure Power in 2008 and led it to become one of India’s largest solar power developers and operators, disclosed his retirement plan in May and to step down from the post of Chairman and CEO.

In June, the company had announced its consolidated results and revenue for the fiscal fourth quarter and year ended March 31, 2019. The firm reported that the total revenue during the financial year 2019, was Rs 992.6 crore, up by 29 percent from Rs 770 crore during the previous year.