MUMBAI (AFP) – India’s top solar module producer Waaree Energies shone on its market debut yesterday after raising USD514 million, as traders bet on increased global demand for clean energy components.
A booming stock market in the world’s fifth-largest economy has stoked an initial public offering (IPO) frenzy over the last two years, with start-ups and companies scooping up billions of dollars from domestic and foreign investors.
The IPO had valued Waaree – which had an aggregate installed capacity of 12 gigawatt as of June 2024, the largest among Indian solar module makers – at USD5 billion at the upper end of the issue’s price range.
Shares of the panel maker however jumped in early trade to INR2,624.40 (USD31.20), up 74.6 per cent from their issue price of INR1,503, before giving up some gains to trade at INR2,401.65.
A “sustainable future is not just a goal, but it is today’s necessity”, said Waaree chairman Hitesh Doshi at the listing ceremony in India’s financial capital Mumbai.
The company, whose shares have attracted investments from Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, has benefited from coal-dependent India’s decision to rapidly expand non-fossil fuel energy capacity.
While a boom in Chinese production has partly caused a glut in the global supply of solar panels, Waaree’s fortunes have surged as countries like the United States (US) look to reduce their dependence on supplies from Beijing.
Indian manufacturers exported USD1.96 billion worth of solar modules and cells in the 2024 fiscal year, according to estimates by ratings agency CRISIL, a jump from the USD1.03 billion they exported the year before.
Regulatory filings by Waaree note it has seen a “substantial increase” in exports due to tariffs imposed by US President Joe Biden’s administration on imports of solar modules from China.
