Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL), an energy service company, has deferred its Initial Public Offering (IPO) to the financial year 2019-20.
“EESL is currently under going a phase of consolidation and its revenue did not meet expectations during the financial year 2017-2018. Revenue grew to ₹1,400 crore during the year from ₹1,200 crore in 2016-17. We hope to double it to ₹3,000 crore in 2018-19 and then go for an IPO in financial year 2019-20,” a company official told BusinessLine .
EESL is a joint venture of four public sector enterprises — NTPC, PFC, REC and PowerGrid.
In January 2018, its paid-up capital was ₹460 crore and the company had come out with a rights issue to its promoters to help enhance the equity.
It had also proposed to tap the stock exchanges in the current financial year and offload 20 per cent of its equity. “We hope to raise ₹200 crore through the IPO considering that the paid-up capital of EESL will be ₹1,000 crore by then,” Saurabh Kumar, Managing Director of EESL, had said.
This is the second time that EESL’s IPO date has been shifted. In March 2017, EESL had said that it could launch its IPO as early as the fourth quarter of financial year 2017-18. The IPO process was expected to start after a planned September issue of $100 million in Masala and dollar bonds in the UK.
The IPO was a part of EESL’s plans to mobilise funds for the₹6,000-crore capital expenditure it had proposed in the financial year 2018-2019. EESL had said that 80 per cent of the ₹6,000 crore will be raised through debt. The remaining 20 per cent equity component will be by way of the paid-up capital of about ₹465 crore, raising ₹530 crore from the promoters, and the IPO.
The ₹4,800-crore debt was to comprise a domestic borrowings of ₹2,000 crore and almost an equal amount through bonds, including a $100-million masala bond issue. The company had also tied up for ₹800-1,000 crore with multilateral agencies. The masala bond, for which the company has selected Barclays and Standard Chartered banks, was to be made once the RBI accorded permission.