Hindustan Cleanenergy plans to invest Rs 5,500 crore

Country's largest private solar power developer plans IPO this year

Country's largest private solar power developer Hindustan Cleanenergy plans to hit the capital markets with an IPO this year to unlock value.

Hindustan Cleanenergy is a subsidiary of

, which in turn is a group company of homegrown storage devices major Moser Baer.

Hindustan Cleanenergy, which has a generation capacity of 350 mw now, also said it will invest Rs 5,500 crore on various solar farms by 2016 by the generation is expected to touch 1-gw (1,000 mw). 200 mw will go on-stream this year-end.

"We will surely be hitting the capital market this calendar year itself, though I cannot offer a clear timeline now. Having already invested Rs 5,500 crore into our solar power venture, we will be pumping in an equal amount by 2016 so that our generation capacity reaches 1 gw," Hindustan Cleanenergy Chief Executive Rajya Wardhan Ghei told a select group of reporters here.

Hindustan Power is privately promoted by the promoters of the Moser Baer group with 33 per cent of the equity being held by private equity firm Blackstone India.

Hindustan Power, which last month announced a whopping Rs 32,000 crore investment, is also into thermal and hydel power apart from coal mining.

Ghei said the company can get a good valuation as it has made a cash profit of Rs 550 crore last fiscal.

When commissioned in October 2010, the 30-mw Gunthawada solar farm in Banaskantha district of Gujarat was the single largest farm in Asia, Ghei said, adding the solar farm is located on a 305-acre land parcel employing 2.36 lakh solar panels. It cost the company Rs 468 crore.

The unit has a 25-year power purchase agreement with the Gujarat state discom and it sells power at Rs 15 a unit. The company has a 35-mw farm in Chennai and 120 mw spanning Italy, Germany, Britain and Japan, making the company largest domestic developer having foreign operations.

Ghei also said its farms are under development in MP. Rajasthan and Gujarat where a 50-mw farm in upcoming fast involving a cost of Rs 500 crore. That apart, it is setting up farms in MP, Bihar and Bengal, he said.

Hindustan Cleanenergy has solar capacity of over 250 mw under development, which will be commissioned in coming 12-18 months in the country. The company sources its solar panels from Japan, Taiwan, China , US and also domestically.