Greenko Energy Holdings, which recently acquired SunEdison’s India assets, may refinance the entire debt of SunEdison India by tapping the overseas bond market, three people aware of the development said.
“Talks are still in early stage and no decision has yet been made with regard to the tenor or the likely date of issue but Greenko has been in talks with banks to explore refinancing options of SunEdison’s debt, ” said the first person, a senior investment banker who did not want to be named. “The issue size is likely to be in the range of $250-300 million,” added a second person who asked not to be identified.
A Greenko spokesperson did not respond to an email seeking comment. A senior Greenko executive said on condition of anonymity that the firm “keeps exploring various options to optimize costs from time to time and overseas bonds are just one of them”.
Hyderabad-based Greenko, backed by Singapore’s GIC and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), acquired SunEdison’s Indian assets in October at an enterprise value of $392 million (Rs2,607 crore). The deal involved an equity investment of $42 million (Rs279 crore) and required Greenko to assume a project-level debt of $350 million at an average investment cost of 11.3%, according to recent corporate filings.
Greenko has one of the largest renewable energy portfolios in India with 1GW of operating projects across hydro, wind and thermal power. It has actively tapped the overseas bond markets to fund its debt in recent years. In August, it raised $500 million from high-yield overseas green bonds to refinance a part of its exiting debt and meet operating and transaction costs.
In recent months, several Indian firms have queued up to borrow at lower costs from overseas bond markets.
In September, Nirma Ltd raised Rs4,000 crore ($600 million) to fund the acquisition of Lafarge India by issuing bonds for a period of up to five years with an average yield of 8.68%.
Rupee-denominated bonds, better known as masala bonds, have also seen growing investor interest, with several successful issuances in the past few months. In July, Housing Development Finance Corp. Ltd raised Rs3,000 crore in the first ever masala bond issue, which was oversubscribed 4.3 times. ECL Finance Ltd, a unit of Edelweiss Capital, became the latest when it raised Rs502 crore through masala bonds in October.
