Greenko buys SunEdison's Indian assets for $392 mn

Greenko Energy Holdings (GEH) has bought the Indian assets of debt-ridden US solar major SunEdison. Fitch Ratings in a report said the acquisition has an enterprise value of $392 million (Rs 2,607 crore) and GEH will make a cash payment of $42 million (Rs 279 crore), assuming project-level debt of $350 million (at an 11.3 per cent of average interest cost).

"As part of the transaction agreement, GEH will take over SunEdison's pipeline of solar generation projects in India at no additional cost," said Fitch.

Greenko Co-founder Mahesh Kolli told Business Standard that whatever information the rating agency has is correct and he has nothing more to add to it. "The details were shared by our bondholders and is correct," he said.

Business Standard had reported in July that Greenko would purchase the Indian assets of SunEdison.

Fitch said Greenko wouldn't see any major change in its credit profile after the acquisition. According to Fitch, Greenko announced on September 30 that it will acquire about 390Mw of SunEdison's solar and wind power generation assets in India. Greenko executives confirmed the details.

Company sources earlier told this paper that SunEdison India's portfolio includes 410 Mw of operational solar power projects, 80 Mw of wind projects. It also has 1,000 Mw of solar power projects coming up, including a 500-Mw project in Andhra Pradesh it won at the historic low bid of Rs 4.63 per unit.

Facing debts globally, SunEdison filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US in April.

Fitch said it expects GEH's leverage to increase temporarily at the end of the FY17, before improving from FY18, as the acquired assets chalk up a full year of operations. "The assets that are operational or close-to-operational include 343 Mw of solar power generation assets - marking GEH's entry into India's solar market," said Fitch.

Greenko may be able to reduce interest costs of the debt assumed through a future refinancing exercise. Nevertheless, Fitch expects the newly acquired assets to be able to service their debt obligations with their own cash generation, so they will not put pressure on the GEH group's liquidity.