ReNew Power likely to explore India listing: CEO

ReNew Power Ventures Pvt. Ltd may explore an India listing, chairman and managing director Sumant Sinha said in an interview.

The development comes in the backdrop of the Goldman Sachs-backed clean energy company announcing a merger with Nasdaq-listed special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) RMG Acquisition Corp. II (RMG II) on Wednesday, at an enterprise value of around $8 billion. The new entity, ReNew Energy Global Plc, will be listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol ‘RNW’, at an equity value of $4.4 billion. In response to a query on considering an India listing plan, Sinha said: “We definitely might.”

The public markets are awaiting a series of initial public offerings this year at a time when the Indian stock market has been hitting lifetime highs on expectations of a strong post-covid economic revival. ReNew Power had shelved its IPO plan in 2019 because of market volatility.

“There is no requirement for us to list in India, but I think as an Indian company, we may very well consider doing that at some point in the near future. But we have to obviously look at concurrent listing requirements in India, and then weigh the pros and cons of it and then take a call. So, I can’t say that we will be doing it, but we will certainly examine it.”

ReNew Power operates 5.73 gigawatts (GW) of solar and wind power, while 4.41GW is under various stages of development across India. In 2018, it had acquired 1.1GW of wind and solar power assets from Ostro Energy—one of the biggest acquisitions in the Indian renewable energy space.

According to Bank of America, the financial adviser to RMG II, this is the “first-ever De-SPAC globally involving renewable IPP” and the “first De-SPAC Indian transaction since 2016”.

SPACs are publicly traded shell companies with no commercial operations, which help unlisted companies go public through mergers, skipping the conventional IPO route. De-SPAC is the process when a SPAC stops being a shell firm.

The $1.2 billion equity proceeds from the merger include a private investment in public equity (PIPE) deal of $855 million, which involves private placements of the common stocks in ReNew Power and $345 million in cash held by RMG II.

The PIPE investors include BlackRock, BNP Paribas Energy Transition Fund, Chamath Palihapitiya, Sylebra Capital, TT International Asset Management Ltd, TT Environmental Solutions Fund and Zimmer Partners. ReNew Power’s existing shareholders include Goldman Sachs, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Japan’s JERA Co. Inc., Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, GEF SACEF India and Sumant Sinha.

“This is the first SPAC deal out of India, it’s the first US listing out of India after a long time, and it’s one of the largest SPAC deals in general. Even in the US, the sizes are not this large. Normal SPAC deals are $200-300 million and PIPE of $200-300 million. So, the total deal size is $400-500 million,” Sinha said.

While existing investors will hold a 70% stake in ReNew Energy Global PLC, PIPE and SPAC investors will hold 20% and 10%, respectively.

“This is a total $1.2 billion transaction, which is very large for the SPAC market as well, and secondly the enterprise value of the company, which is $8 billion between the post listing market cap and the debt itself, is also one of the highest among companies that have been listed through the SPAC route,” Sinha added.

Mint reported on Wednesday afternoon about the imminent announcement of the merger at a pre-money valuation of $3.7 billion. The net proceeds of $610 million will fund future projects and help pay down debt.

“Capital raising for us obviously is an important activity. So, at any point in time, we look at various different alternatives,” Sinha said.