KKR launches India renewable energy platform

Virescent has been seeded with five solar assets in the states of Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, which represent a combined peak output capacity of 317 megawatts. These were acquired in April from a local developer for INR15.5 billion ($208 million).

KKR said it has entered into definitive agreements to acquire additional operating solar projects in three different states and that these will also be rolled into the Virescent platform. The plan is to create a diversified portfolio with a focus on stable cash flows and long-term contracts with state and central government counterparties.

The private equity firm has appointed Sanjay Grewal, formerly CEO of non-banking finance company Altico Capital India, as Virescent’s CEO. Grewal has more than 30 years of experience in the Indian and global infrastructure sectors.

Much of the strategy hinges on India’s ambitious government incentives in recent years to bring more renewables into the national energy mix. This includes the widespread provision of 25-year offtake agreements and a reverse auction mechanism for energy pricing in place of feed-in tariffs. The government has projected that renewables will grow from 24% to about 60% of installed power capacity during the next 10 years.

“The launch of Virescent is a meaningful milestone for KKR’s Asia Pacific infrastructure strategy amid India’s ambitions to install 175 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity by 2022 and 450 GW by 2030,” Hardik Shah, a managing director on KKR’s infrastructure team, said in a statement. “We look forward to playing a part in meeting these goals and supporting the government’s Green Energy Corridor initiative through our investment in Virescent.”

KKR takes a flexible approach to infrastructure investment in Asia Pacific, combining the capabilities of its local teams across the region with global industrial and operational capacities. Last year, it named Singapore-based David Luboff, a former senior managing director of Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets, as its head of Asia infrastructure investment.

KKR launched its first Asia Pacific infrastructure fund last year with a target of $3 billion and has raised at least $1.5 billion to date. The firm describes renewables as a key vertical in its overall infrastructure strategy, with current investments amounting to more than 10,000 MW of total operational capacity.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Infrastructure
• GPs
• Cleantech
• energy
• India
• KKR
• renewable energy