New Delhi: Global Power Synergy Public Company Limited (GPSC), part of Thailand state utility PTT, on Wednesday said that it is investing another USD 233 million or INR 1916.7 crore in Vineet Mittal’s solar energy company Avaada Energy Pvt Ltd, adding to an investment of USD 68 million made in April.
With this latest capital infusion, Avaada group has closed its planned capital raising of USD 1.3 billion, which was first reported by ET on 10 April.
As part of this round, Mittal’s holding company Avaada Ventures Pvt Ltd on 27 April announced that it has raised USD 1 billion from Canadian investor Brookfield through its Brookfield Global Transition Fund. The proceeds from Brookfield will be used to fund the group’s green hydrogen and green ammonia ventures.
Avaada Energy is the solar energy generation arm of the group, which is involved in setting up utility scale solar projects as well as projects to supply green energy to commercial and industrial clients. Avaada Energy is also entering the battery storage segment.
The group holdco, Avaada Ventures, houses the new businesses of green ammonia, green hydrogen, solar cells and module manufacturing and electrolyzer manufacturing.
Within five years since inception, Avaada Energy has developed a portfolio of 4 GW and the firm plans to reach 11 GW by 2026 and 30 GW by 2030.
With its latest investment, GPSC has committed over USD 750 million to Avaada Energy so far, having first invested USD 454 million in 2021.
GPSC will continue to hold a 42.9% stake in Avaada Energy, as holding company Avaada Ventures is also putting money, proportional to its shareholding, into Avaada Energy in this round.
Of the total investment of INR 1,916.7 crore, the first tranche of INR 864.9 crore will be disbursed in July, GPSC said in a filing with the Thai stock exchange.
“This investment in Avaada Energy is aimed at expanding renewable energy plants and capturing other related future business opportunities including integrated energy production,” GPSC said.
The statement added that in Q2 2023, Avaada Energy has consistently increased its total capacity and successfully secured the bidding for 6 solar power plant projects, adding a total contracted capacity of 1,793 MW, increasing its total contracted capacity up to 6,720 MW.
“Our fundraising demonstrates that the green ammonia and green hydrogen opportunity in India is getting worldwide acceptance and that investors are willing to put money at a big scale,” said Vineet Mittal, Chairperson and Founder, Avaada Group.
“This fundraising has increased the market’s confidence in Avaada’s ability to execute and we are confident that we should be able to exceed our target of 11 GW of solar capacity by 2026,” he said.
Mittal added that the group is seeing strong demand in the commercial and industrial (C&I) segment, which forms around 18-20% of the business for Avaada Energy currently and is also keenly eyeing opportunities in battery storage segment, where it has participated in two bids in the states of Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh.
“PTT is a big player in battery storage and we will leverage their expertise in this segment,” he said.
