UK’s ThomasLloyd has acquired a significant stake in India’s Delhi-based SolarArise India Projects Pvt Ltd. SolarArise currently owns and operates 130 MW of grid-connected solar power projects in India.
ThomasLloyd’s investment is expected to support the company’s expansion of its solar energy capacity by approximately 250 megawatt (MW). These projects will be a combination of government and state sector projects as well as selected private sector projects, benefiting from long-term power purchase agreements.
ThomasLloyd will join the existing founding shareholders, the European Initiative on Clean, Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency and Climate Change related to Development SICAV SIF in relation to Global Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Fund (GEEREF), advised by the European Investment Bank Group, and Kotak Mahindra managed Core Infrastructure India Fund (CIIF), along with the founding management team.
Following the investment, ThomasLloyd will become the largest shareholder in the company. The co-founders being Tanya Singhal, Anil Nayar, and James Abraham, are experienced professionals, who have been pioneers in the Indian solar market since 2009.
This is ThomasLloyd’s first renewable energy investment in India, and beyond the current identified portfolio, ThomasLloyd has the scope to expand capacity in excess of one gigawatt (GW) of grid-connected solar for the fast-growing domestic Indian market.
For ThomasLloyd, Nandita Sahgal Tully, Managing Director Merchant Banking, said, “this partnership will fuel our ambitions to tap into the incredible opportunity in the Indian renewables sector and to be involved in the setup of greenfield solar assets across several states.”
“Our strategy has always been to build a portfolio consisting of high quality, medium-sized, grid-connected assets with long-term diversified PPAs,” he added.
For ThomasLloyd, Chairman and Group CEO, Michael Sieg, commented, “building on our track record of impact investing in Southeast Asia we believe this is an important investment in addressing the growing energy needs of India in a sustainable and environmentally responsible manner. We support the government’s renewable energy target outlined in their National Solar Mission of 100GW installed solar capacity by 2022.”
