Suzlon Energy Ltd on Tuesday announced a leadership rejig with an eye on expansion, as long-time chief executive J.P. Chalasani moved on to oversee the group's newer projects and a former top executive from the Adani Group stepped into his shoes.
Chalasani will be part of a group executive council (GEC) that will work on the diversification of Suzlon Energy beyond its wind energy business. Group chairman Vinod Tanti and the executive vice chairman Girish Tanti, who are part of the promoter group of Suzlon, will also be part of the newly-formed council.
Meanwhile, Ajay Kapur, the former managing director of Adani Cements, which comprises Ambuja Cement Ltd and ACC Ltd among other companies, will lead Suzlon Energy as its new group CEO. Kapur superannuated from the Adani Group on 31 January. He will focus on growing Suzlon's core wind energy business.
“You can't take your eyes away from the growth of the core business the way we're growing, right? Therefore, there was a need for us to expand our management bandwidth,” Chalasani said in an interview to Mint on Tuesday. Kapur will step in to ensure management focus on growth in the core business, he said.
Suzlon's core business doubled between FY24 and FY25 and the company has guided for 60% growth across its key performance indicators for FY26. It has also guided for installation of 2.5 gigawatts (GW) of wind turbines during the year from 1.55 GW in FY25.
During the first nine months of the fiscal year, the company installed 1.6 GW of wind projects and also surpassed revenue and Ebitda figures of entireFY25. It reported a topline of ₹11,211 crore during the first nine months and an Ebitda of ₹2,058 crore.
The focus on growth at Suzlon Energy comes after years of pain, where the company was deep in debt and the business was shrinking. The company now has net cash of ₹1,556 crore and is leveraging the market interest in renewable energy to diversify beyond its core business of wind energy.
“Suzlon is back in shape after a tumultuous period over the last decade,” analysts at brokerage ICICI Direct said in a note on 6 February.
“The government has decided to tender out at least 10GW of wind capacity every year with pick-up in demand from commercial and industrial entities for round-the-clock power supply," the analysts said. "Suzlon, being the market leader in the wind turbine industry, is the natural beneficiary of this shift, in our view.”
Going beyond wind
Suzlon Energy is planning to diversify into project development to diversify its business beyond manufacturing and setting up wind turbine generators. Project development includes identifying areas for future renewable energy development, purchasing land, securing regulatory approvals and grid connectivity, and finally engineering and construction of the project.
“It's a natural transition for us. While we are doing the tougher part of the business (wind energy), solar and BESS (battery energy storage systems) is not that complicated to kind of integrate into the system,” Girish Tanti said in the same interview.
The company is looking to pitch itself as a one-stop energy management service provider that is able to provide wind and solar energy, along with battery energy storage. It will also manage the entire value chain from project development to engineering, procurement and construction (EPC), to equipment supply to lifetime service.
The company is still contemplating whether it will get into EPC for solar energy and BESS itself, or outsource it to other companies, Tanti said. However, it will handle the entire project development, regardless of it being wind, solar or a combination of both along with BESS, to attract customers.
Diversifying into project development will also reduce the risk of the company due to project delays. Delays in land acquisition or in getting grid connectivity for a project often hurts the business of Suzlon as an EPC service provider and wind energy equipment supplier and handling these issues early would reduce project delay risk not just for Suzlon but also the customer, making the business more attractive and margin accretive, said Tanti.
The company will leverage its knowledge on wind energy over the years to identify sites that are likely to see new projects in the next 5-10 years, Chalasani said. It has already identified upcoming sites for 23GW of projects and has started work on 6-7 GW, he said.
Shares of Suzlon Energy closed 0.2% lower on the BSE on Tuesday at ₹44.14 compared to a 1.3% fall in benchmark Sensex. The stock has shed nearly 20% in the past six months compared to a flattish Sensex.