Baring, Aditya Birla circle Anu Solar Power stake - report

The private equity firms will invest INR1 billion by the end of this month, according to a source cited by the Economic Times.

Ernst & Young is advising on the investment into the firm, which manufactures solar inverters and water heaters and provides off-grid power solutions.

Anu Solar generated revenues of INR600 million during the last financial year.

If completed, the investment would continue the trend of growing private equity interest in Indian renewable energy. PE investment in cleantech topped $500 million in 2011, more than double the previous year's total, with a sizeable portion going into wind power-related assets.

There have been several landmark deals in recent months, including Goldman Sachs' private equity arm committing INR10 billion for a majority stake in start-up ReNew Wind Power and Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners investing INR12 billion in Continuum Wind Energy.

On the solar front, earlier this year, Adani Group, whose publicly listed power subsidiary is backed by 3i Group, commissioned India's largest solar power project. The project at Kutch in Gujarat has an initial capacity of 40 MW but the company plans to expand it to 100 MW.

India's renewable energy sector has received government support of late in the form of tax incentives, accelerated depreciation and capital subsidies, and the state has set a target of 30,000 megawatts in capacity from renewable sources by 2017.

A Pew Charitable Trust reported published in April found that India was one of the top performing clean energy economies of the 21st century, having recorded $10.2 billion worth of investments into the sector in 2011, up 54% on 2010's figure.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Cleantech
• Expansion
• Growth capital
• Cleantech
• India
• Baring Private Equity Partners India
• Aditya Birla Capital Advisors