At last, an IPO by a company from the renewable energy industry! A clutch of green companies, such as ReNew Power and ACME, toyed with the idea of hitting the capital market, but apparently haven’t as yet found the exercise worthwhile. As a result, the bourses have not seen a new listing from the RE industry in a long time.
Gensol Engineering’s IPO is eyebrow-raising in another way too — the ask. The company, which provides design engineering, operations & maintenance and consultancy services to solar and wind power developers, is seeking to raise only ₹17-18 crore from the market.
Anmol Jaggi, Gensol Engineering’s Chairman and Managing Director, told
Founded by the sons of late Lt Gen PS Jaggi, Gensol has been on quite a joy ride in the last four years — its turnover increased from ₹12.12 crore in 2015-16 to ₹83.39 crore in 2018-19; net profit from ₹36 lakh to ₹6.5 crore, enjoying 66 per cent return on equity over the period.
The company has 3,000 MW of solar assets under O&M contracts. Since it expects the number to grow to 10,000 MW in a couple of years, it needs to stock up on spares and hire and train manpower. For this purpose it requires funding.
Also, Gensol intends to expand its overseas business, which currently contributes between 5 and 10 per cent but looks set to grow.
The company, for instance, is consultant to a 6,000 MW solar project of SoftBank Energy in Saudi Arabia.
The IPO proceeds will fund these ambitions.