Over 75% of planned Capex will be in green technologies till 2025
Billionaire Gautam Adani’s plans to revamp his business empire into the world’s largest renewables player are on a roll. He is tapping the green bond market to fund the environment-friendly change for his US$20 billion investment plan.
Adani Green Energy, which takes care of the renewables business, has raised US$750 million from the green bond market last September. It will not be the last as Adani reportedly told Nikkei Asia that the Group would use the market to fund its US$20 billion investment plan, according to Adani Group release on 10 Jan 2022.
The US$20 billion investment plan is part of Adani’s bigger game plan to invest across the entire renewable energy chain over the next decade. It includes production and manufacturing processes along with distribution and entails a ginormous sum of US$70 billion. So far, investments have been made towards the manufacturing of equipment, including electrolysers.
The Group is eager to cut down its dependence on fossil fuels, aiming to triple its renewable power generation capacity in the next four years. Currently, the share of renewables in electric generation is 21% and is expected to account for almost two-thirds once things fall into place.
Adani has stressed that going green was the logical choice as it opened up new avenues for growth. “Our actions indicate that we are putting our money where our mouth is as over 75% of our planned Capex until 2025 will be in green technologies,” he quipped, in one of his rare interviews, with Nikkei Asia.
Talking about funding for his ambitious project, Adani placed his confidence on green bonds. “Over the process of its development, Adani Green Energy has matured its capital management plan. The organisation has a cycle of funding under-construction assets and then de-risking operational projects through US-dollar green bond refinancing, thereby releasing the credit line for the next set of construction projects”, he pointed out.
Additional sources include debt raising and equity capital, as well as the Group’s internal cash flows. As of the last financial year, the Adani Group of companies had accrued US$4.3 billion (Rs.323.4 billion) in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation.
He asserts that the Adani Group will become the world’s largest renewables company in the not-too-distant future. The company has achieved its target of 25 GW renewables capacity a full four years ahead of schedule.
“This puts us well on track to be the world’s largest renewable power generating company by 2030,” Adani was quoted Nikkei Asia as saying in a release issued by Adani Energy on 10 Jan 2022. fiinews.com
