Ireda may tap $150-m masala bond for green power

Aug 12: State-run Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency, or Ireda, is planning to issue about $100 million to $150 million in offshore rupee bonds by November to boost lending for green power, a top official said.

“Within the next two to three months, we’re going to issue offshore masala bonds,” Ireda director of finance Satish Kumar Bhargava said in an interview in Singapore. The agency will issue the securities either on the London Stock Exchange or the Singapore Stock Exchange, he said.

As India targets 175 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity by 2022, an almost four-fold increase from the current base of 45 gigawatt, developmentinstitutionswill play a key role in directing investment. Ireda already raised Rs 1,716 crore through selling bonds in January. Bhargavasaidtheagencyalso seeks credit lines from New Development Bank.

In the previous financial year, Ireda approved loans worth Rs 7,800 crore while disbursing Rs 4,300 crore to borrowers -- a 60% increase year on year, according to Bhargava. For the current fiscal, Ireda wants to approve Rs 10,000 crore with Rs 6,100 crore disbursed, he said.

To meet the burgeoning financial needs of the renewable energy sector and to compete with other lenders, Ireda said in July 2015 that it would move toward going public. “An equity listing is planned in India either in 2017 or 2018,” Bhargava said. Bloomberg