The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has injected US$50 million of equity investment into India’s Welspun Renewables Energy, with a view to boosting the developer’s solar and wind portfolio.
ADB said the support could help Welspun double its operational portfolio of solar and wind projects to 600MW by March 2016.
PV Tech was unable to secure any comment from Welspun, but according to documents published on the ADB’s website, the deal was finalised in December last year, but has only just been made public.
Financial support from ADB is to “catalyze private equity investment and facilitate a future Initial Public Offering (IPO)”, ADB said in documents detailing the deal.
ADB’s support is also to assist India’s national renewable energy targets, including the support of a local renewable energy company.
The project is also in line with ADB’s goals for 2020 in clean energy development to meet energy demand sustainably.
To qualify for the investment, Welspun is required by ABD to adopt an environmental and social management system (ESMS), and all sites will require safeguard audits to adhere to strict environmental standards.
Out of a total operational renewable energy portfolio of 309MW, Welspun has 289MW of solar power projects across India, plus 119MW under construction and a further pipeline of 1.2GW.
According to other press reports the deal would amount to a 13 per cent stake in Welspun and represents ADB’s largest investment in the renewable energy sector.
