Former Ostro honchos look to start clean energy platform in India

Ranjit Gupta and Murali Subramanian, former chief executive officer (CEO) and chief operating officer (COO), respectively, of global private equity firm Actis Llp’s Ostro Energy Pvt. Ltd, are in talks to initially raise $100 million to establish a clean energy platform in India, said three people aware of the development.

“What we raise will depend on the investors’ interest. We are initially looking to raise $100 million,” said Subramanian. He declined to elaborate. Gupta couldn’t be reached immediately.

In April, ReNew Power Ventures had acquired Ostro Energy at an enterprise value of $1.5 billion, in India’s largest clean energy deal.

Backed by Actis, Gupta and Subramanian spearheaded the growth of Ostro through a prudent green energy auction strategy entailing an equity investment of $280 million and a debt of about $900 million. It helped Ostro leapfrog from one 50 megawatt (MW) project in Rajasthan to 1.1 gigawatt (GW) when it was sold.

“We believed renewables had potential. Then we started Ostro in 2014. So, we decided to back two good guys—Ranjit and Murali— whom we appointed as CEO and COO of Ostro. We then built a full team around that. When Actis exited Ostro, we had about 130 employees, starting from two people,” Actis partner Sanjiv Aggarwal, incharge of Asia energy business, said in an earlier interview.

“Ranjit and Murali understand the space and have been part of Ostro’s success,” said a person aware of the fund-raising plans cited above, requesting anonymity.