Mumbai: ACME Solar Holdings Limited, a renewable energy company in India with a portfolio of solar, wind, hybrid and firm and dispatchable renewable energy (“FDRE”) projects, is coming out with its Initial Public Offering (IPO) priced at Rs 275 to Rs 289 per Equity Share – aggregating to Rs 2,900 crores.
The IPO, which will open on November 6, 2024 and close on November 8, 2024, is a mix of Fresh Issue of up to Rs 2,395 crore and an Offer For Sale up to Rs 505 crore by ACME Cleantech Solutions Private Limited.
Manoj Upadhyay, Founder & Chairman, ACME Solar, said that Rs 1,795 crore from the fresh issue will be utilized for investment in its subsidiaries for repayment/prepayment, in full or in part, of certain outstanding borrowings availed by its subsidiaries; and general corporate purposes.
Upadhyay told this correspondent that while the company had been dependent on China for most of its solar modules needs, India stepping in as manufacturer of solar panels has reduced this need.
He was replying to a question highlighting ACME Solar Holdings Ltd risk statement that “Dependence on China where restrictions on our equipment imports may increase our costs of procurement of such equipment. Our expenses on equipment primarily originating from China accounted for 66.72%, 65.40% and 57.32% of our total purchases in Fiscal 2024, 2023 and 2022 respectively.”
“However, now, for the first time, we are buying these products from India itself for our needs, and our dependence on China for meeting these needs has reduced by 2/3rd,” he said, adding that the company buys solar modules 6 months before starting any project.
To another question about “green hydrogen,” he said these are long-gestation projects and these processing plants need to be closer to a suitable buyer’s market, which at present is the international market like Europe. “We are looking at various geographies like Oman, though the buyers’ market is small at present,” he said.
ACME Solar Holdings Ltd was established in 2015 and is among the top 10 renewable energy players in India in terms of operational capacity as of June 30, 2024. It develops, builds, owns, operates and maintains utility scale renewable energy projects (through its in-house engineering, procurement and construction (“EPC”) division and operation and maintenance (“O&M”) team, and generates revenue through the sale of electricity to various off-takers including Central and State Government-backed entities.
As of June 30, 2024, 18 out of its 28 Operational Projects are located in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Telangana representing 85.07% of its total Operational Projects capacity.
Acme Solar’s restated consolidated revenue from operations for fiscal 2024 was Rs 1,319.25 crore from Rs 1,294.90 crore in the previous year. The Company had turnaround from being loss making in FY23 to a profit of Rs 697.78 crore in FY24.
For the three months ended 30 June 2024, Revenue from Operations stood at Rs 309.64 crore and Profit after Tax stood at Rs 1.39 crore.
Nuvama Wealth Management Limited, ICICI Securities Limited, JM Financial Limited, Kotak Mahindra Capital Company Limited, and Motilal Oswal Investment Advisors Limited are the book-running lead managers, and KFin Technologies Limited is the registrar of the issue.
