ACME Solar to re-file documents for IPO

Mumbai: Renewable energy producer ACME Solar Holdings is planning to re-file the draft red herring prospectus for its initial public offering (IPO), two people aware of the matter said.

ACME Solar builds and maintains solar power projects, and generates revenue through the sale of electricity to central and state government entities and government-backed companies.

“ACME Solar is looking to re-file its DRHP. They will file the new prospects with financial numbers for the fiscal ending 31 March. The company had several projects under development that have come online recently and, thus, the need to re-file as these will result in change of financial numbers and valuation,” said one of the persons cited above, requesting anonymity as he is not authorized to speak with the media.

The company is looking to raise around Rs1,000-1,500 crore through the revised IPO, he added.

In September, ACME Solar had first filed its DRHP with Sebi to raise Rs2,200 crore through the IPO.

In an email response to Mint’s queries, ACME said that the company is looking to re-file its DRHP due to change in plans for using the capital it intends to raise through the IPO.

“As per Sebi guidelines, an issuer needs to re-file prospectus, if it needs to modify end use of IPO beyond 20%. Since we had deadline to fund our under-construction projects which were supposed to be funded from IPO proceeds, we funded them from internal accruals and promoter equity instead of awaiting IPO proceeds. Therefore, end-use of funds to be raised from IPO has changed and we will have to re-file the prospectus again with revised end-use,” Nikhil Dhingra, chief executive officer of ACME Solar, said in an email.

According to Dhingra, the company would be re-filing DRHP only after the financials of March 2018 are audited. “Current financials of March 2018 would also be captured in the revised filing as earlier financials in DRHP were valid till a certain time. It can only be done now post-March results are audited,” added Dhingra.

He declined to comment on the quantum of capital to be raised.

Promoted by Manoj Upadhyay, ACME Solar was established in 2015, in order to consolidate ACME Group’s solar power business and to capitalize on the opportunities in the Indian solar power industry.

As of September 2017, the company had a portfolio of 874MW of operational solar power projects across 12 states.

ACME Solar is not the only company that plans to go public in the industry, where the government has set an ambitious clean energy target of 175GW by 2022. In February, Sembcorp Energy India Ltd, the Indian arm of Singapore-based utility group Sembcorp Industries Ltd filed the DRHP for its IPO. According to a Mint report on 18 January, Sembcorp Energy would be raising around $500-600 million through the IPO.

In December last year, Economic Times reported that renewable energy producer Renew Power Ventures Pvt. Ltd had appointed investment banks Goldman Sachs, Kotak Mahindra Capital Co. Ltd and JM Financial Institutional Securities Ltd for its $700 million IPO.