ReNew Power Lists on Nasdaq in US Via SPAC, Mcap Hits $4.5 Billion – EQ Mag Pro

This is the biggest listing of an Indian entity through SPAC, the vehicle through which an Indian company could list in the US. At present, an Indian company cannot directly list on a foreign bourse.

Mumbai: ReNew Power, India’s biggest renewable energy company, on Tuesday listed on the Nasdaq in the US through the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) route and achieved a market capitalisation of nearly $4.5 billion (about Rs 33,500 crore).

This is the biggest listing of an Indian entity through SPAC, the vehicle through which an Indian company could list in the US. At present, an Indian company cannot directly list on a foreign bourse.

On Tuesday, ReNew Energy, the UK-domiciled holding company for ReNew Power, started trading on the US exchange under the ticker symbol ‘RNW’. In early trades, the stock was quoted at $8.6.

Since under current rules an Indian company can’t directly list on a foreign bourse, the UK-domiciled ReNew Energy has been structured as the holding company for ReNew Power, the India-domiciled company that owns all the renewable energy assets in the country.

Although it’s a circuitous route to listing in the US, it is allowed under current laws.

In the run-up to the listing, ReNew Energy merged with RMG II, the SPAC that had earlier raised money from wealthy investors around the globe. As is common with SPAC structures in the US, while raising money, RMG II did not have any specific target company to acquire or invest the money in. However, after the fund-raising, it identified ReNew Power as the target company in which it wanted to invest the money it had raised. Some merchant bankers also said that the decade-old ReNew Power’s SPAC listing in the US was the largest for any Asian company, but this could not be independently verified.

According to ReNew Power chairman Sumant Sinha, around $700 million of gross proceeds from the listing will accrue to the company. This fund will be used to set up new power production facilities. Currently, the company has an operating capacity of about 5,600 megawatt (MW) and another 4,300MW is in the pipeline. It also has a target of 18,500MW operating capacity by 2025, Sinha told TOI.

The company has also set up a large battery facility in Karnataka to store the power it produces, Sinha said. A storage facility was needed since production of renewable energy is mostly intermittent and it may not always be possible for the energy grids to absorb it as and when produced.

Source: TNN