ReNew raises $400 million by issuing green bonds

NASDAQ-listed ReNew Energy Global, the parent company of India’s leading renewable energy developer ReNew Power, has announced its Mauritius-based wholly-owned subsidiary India Clean Energy Holdings has raised US$400 million at 4.5% by issuing senior secured dollar notes. 

The dollar notes are certified green bonds by Climate Bond Initiative and will be listed on the Singapore Exchange (SGX). These green bonds have a tenor of 5.25 years. 

“This is the first high-yield issuance out of the ASEAN and South Asian regions in 2022. These notes were subscribed to by investors from the US and Asia at about 40% each and the balance by EMEA-based investors. The bulk of notes was subscribed to by long-only fund managers and pension funds,” read a ReNew statement.

So far ReNew, through its subsidiaries, has raised more than US$ 3.5 billion across eight such issuances, of which seven are outstanding. The amount raised would be used by ReNew’s subsidiaries to refinance existing high-cost debt and fund capital expenditure in renewable energy assets or for other purposes.

ReNew has a large, diversified renewable energy portfolio across utility-scale wind and solar energy projects, hydro projects, and distributed solar energy projects. As of November 30, 2021, it had a total capacity of approximately 10.3 GW of renewable energy projects (including 7 GW of commissioned and 3.3 GW committed projects) across India. This comprises 50% wind (5.2 GW), 49% solar (5 GW) and 1% hydro (0.1 GW). ReNew aims to achieve close to 18 GW of installed renewable energy capacity by 2025.

Speaking about the amount raised, President Corporate Finance, Kailash Vaswani, said: “In line with our rapid expansion plans to accelerate India’s energy transition, this issuance goes a long way in helping us meet our robust growth objectives and reduce our cost of capital. We will continue to seek fundraising opportunities to refinance our existing debt with lower-cost fixed-rate green bonds.”