Green equity fund eyes global players

Govt's $1-billion equity fund to be managed by a renowned global investment manager

Global wealth and pension funds will invest in a $1-billion equity fund to be set by the government for renewable energy projects.

Government officials said the fund, envisaged during Climate Change discussions in Paris last year, would be managed by a global investment manager.

“We will soon issue the request for proposal for selecting a suitable investment manager. The corpus is huge, so we are looking for an agency that can elicit interest from the largest wealth and pension funds,” said an official with the ministry of new and renewable energy.

NEW ENERGY

• Power Minister Piyush Goyal announced $1 billion fund for wind and solar projects during the Paris Climate Summit last year
• It will be an equity fund, to be managed by an global investment managers
• Global wealth and pension funds to invest in the fund
• IREDA to select investment manager through transparent bidding process
• Old and new projects to avail equity funding

The request for proposal will be issued by the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency, the financing arm of the ministry and one of the key lenders to the clean energy sector.

Officials confirmed the development, saying proceedings for issuing the request for proposal were under way. The investment manager will on the basis of several parameters select projects with the best returns. The $1 billion fund is both for old projects looking for refinance as well as new projects. Being an equity fund, consolidation was likely in solar projects, experts said. Small wind power players that have put their projects on sale will also benefit.

Business Standard had earlier reported a dozen solar and wind projects were scouting for fresh funds of up to $3 billion as equity in projects under construction or just built. “In the next 12-18 months, the industry is expecting close to 10,000 megawatt of renewable power projects to be completed. With tariffs going down, the major players hope to be financially prepared,” said an executive with a financial consultancy.