Suzlon Chairman Tulsi Tanti is happy with the sale of his company’s German subsidiary Senvion for about €1.1 billion. Responding to queries from BusinessLine, Tanti spoke of his company’s plan to pare debt and turn itself into green next fiscal. Edited excerpts:
How happy are you with the valuation of the Senvion sale? Are lenders appreciative of the valuations?
Valuation is in line with current multiples.
Lenders are appreciative of the steps we have taken to repay the debt and honour our commitment. The transaction has with lenders’ support.
How much of Senvion’s infrastructure can you leverage to cater to overseas markets?
Suzlon has its large global infrastructure and global presence with a total 6,000 MW installed outside India.
What sort of capacity addition are you looking at over the next five years?
We do have manufacturing capacity of about 4,000 MW.
Our capacity had low utilisation during the last three years.
However, we have the ability to ramp our volumes on afast track for which we have a strong order backlog.
You have said you will set up 3,000-MW wind and solar energy capacity for ₹24,000 crore? How will you go about it, especially the funding?
The 3,000-MW capacity is planned as a developer and not as an investor. Our customers are going to invest into the same from their equity and debt. We need working capital for execution of these capacities.
What’s the percentage of repeat orders in the total order book this year vis-a-vis last year?
We have over 2,000 strong customers globally.
Substantial orders come from repeat business given our strong relationships with customers, strong technology and par excellence service capabilities.
Generally, more than two-thirds of the business come from repeat orders.
How do you plan to raise resources to grow your businesses further?
We have already invested into various manufacturing capacities.
Our business does not require large capital expenditure. We need large working capital for execution.
What other steps are you taking to pare debt?
This (Senvion sale) is a significant big step for a large size deleveraging.
Of the remaining debt, about 30 per cent is FCCB, which is likely to get converted into equity, and 40 per cent is foreign currency covered bond with bullet payment obligations.
The rest is for working capital. The company will be able to address the remaining debt after ramping up its operations.
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