Azure Power seeks possible stake sale to a partner
comment, an Azure Power spokesperson didn’t respond to emailed queries.
Founded in 2008, the renewable energy company has an operational capacity of 3.04 giga watt (GW), and a contracted and awarded capacity of 4.3 GW.
Azure Power has seen significant churn in its top management in recent years. After founder Inderpreet Wadhwa left in 2019, the new CEO Ranjit Gupta and COO Murali Subramanian also resigned in April 2022.
Then, Harsh Shah, who joined as CEO on 1 July 2022, left on 29 August 2022, after which Rupesh Agarwal, who had joined as chief strategy and commercial officer, was made acting CEO.
After Agarwal left in July 2023, the board brought in Sunil Gupta as CEO. Finally, on 15 March 2024, Azure Power announced the resignation of M.S. Unnikrishnan as the chairman and member of the board.
News reports said on Friday that the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and the Justice Department’s fraud unit in Washington are investigating Azure Power Global Ltd.
Azure Power had earlier stated that it “received a whistleblower complaint in May 2022 alleging potential procedural irregularities and misconduct by certain employees at a plant belonging to one of its subsidiaries”.
In a 29 August 2022 statement, Azure Power had said, “As part of the Company’s review of these allegations, it discovered deviations from safety and quality norms, and it has implemented mechanisms to remediate them and in so doing strengthen safety and quality protocols. Azure’s Audit Committee, with the assistance of legal counsel and forensic accounting support, also identified evidence of manipulation of project data and information by certain employees. The Company is implementing immediate remedial measures, and Azure is initiating disclosure of the findings to the appropriate authorities.”
However, analysts have improved their outlook on Azure Power. Fitch Ratings in a 2 February statement said that it has moved Azure Power Solar Energy Private Limited’s (Azure RG2) and Azure Power Energy Ltd’s (Azure RG3) US dollar bonds from ‘Rating Watch Negative’ to ‘B’, with a stable outlook.
Azure Power, struggling with a top management churn, is also reportedly facing an investigation in the US