Two Indian renewable power producers plan to sell $750 million in domestic bonds: sources

By Promit Mukherjee and Krishna Merchant

MUMBAI/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Two of India's biggest renewable energy companies, Greenko Group PLC and ReNew Power Ventures Pte Ltd, plan to sell a combined $750 million worth of rupee-denominated bonds in the domestic market, three bankers told Reuters on Tuesday.

The pair turned to the domestic market after the central bank introduced limits on selling rupee-denominated bonds overseas, known as masala bonds, said the bankers, who declined to be identified as the plans are not public.

Moreover, limits imposed by the securities regulator on foreign buyers of corporate bonds in India has raised the profile of domestic investors as target buyers.

Neither Greenko nor ReNew responded to Reuters emails seeking comment.

"The refinancing conversations by renewable energy companies are being re-initiated with the domestic investor base," Jayen Shah, head of debt capital markets at IDFC Bank, said in an email to Reuters, attributing the development to regulatory restrictions.

Four renewable power producers sold as much as $2.5 billion in U.S. dollar-denominated bonds in July, with foreign investors attracted by a government plan to more than treble renewable energy capacity to 175 gigawatts (GW) by 2022 from 57 GW now.

Greenko - backed by sovereign wealth funds GIC Pte Ltd of Singapore and Abu Dhabi Investment Co PJSC - and Goldman Sachs-backed ReNew together operate over 2 GW of renewable power generation capacity.

Greenko plans to sell 30 billion rupees ($467 million) worth of onshore rupee-denominated bonds, and ReNew plans to raise 18 billion rupees, the bankers said.

Greenko is selling bonds onshore for the first time, and plans to use funds raised to refinance a 1.8 GW solar project, one of the bankers said. Another banker said ReNew aims to refinance two wind projects.

($1 = 64.1850 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Promit Mukherjee and Krishna Merchant of IFR; Additional reporting by Suvashree Dey Choudhary; Editing by Christopher Cushing)