Shapoorji Pallonji group's Sterling and Wilson files for Rs 4,500-crore IPO

Shapoorji Pallonji Company holds 65.77% stake in the company

Shapoorji Pallonji group’s Sterling and Wilson Solar has filed for an initial public offering (IPO) of up to Rs 4,500 crore, which would be an offer for sale (OFS). The company filed its draft prospectus on Tuesday.

“This offer comprises an OFS by the promoter-selling shareholders. The net proceeds from the offer will be paid directly to the promoter-selling shareholders,” the company said in its prospectus. Shapoorji Pallonji Comp­a­n­y and Khurshed Yazdi Daruvala are the promoter- selling shareholders.

Daruvala holds 33.33 per cent stake in the firm, while Shapoorji Pallonji Company holds 65.77 per cent stake in the company. The offer document added, “The promoter-selling shareholders shall utilise a portion of the proceeds to fund the partial repayment of loans due to the company, and Sterling and Wilson International Solar FZCO from SWPL and Sterling and Wilson International FZE (a subsidiary of SWPL), respectively.” SWPL is Sterling and Wilson.

As of December 2018, the company had an order book of Rs 4,309 crore, which comprises definitive engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts minus the revenue already recognized from those projects.

Sterling & Wilson Solar is an end-to-end EPC solar solutions provider. 

“We were the world’s largest solar EPC solutions provider in 2018 based on the annual installations of utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) systems of more than 5 Mw peak, according to IHS Markit,” the company said in its prospectus. 

Along with India, the company also has presence in South east Asia, the Middle East and north Africa, rest of Africa, Europe, the US, Latin America and Australia.

For the financial year 2017-18, the company’s revenue from operations stood at Rs 6,871.70 crore, and for the nine-month period of FY2018-19 at Rs 5,915 crore. The company’s nine month profit after tax was at Rs 343.43 crore for the last financial year.

The company plans to expand in the solar operations and maintenance (O&M) segment. “We plan to continue expanding our O&M operations to solar power projects that were not constructed by us. We intend to first expand our O&M operations in the regions where we have EPC operations, and enter markets that have conducive solar power polices with commissioned solar power projects,” the company said.