Serentica wants $300 million. A stake sale is likely.

“The plans is at an early stage, with the sell side banker to be appointed," said one of the two people cited above, requesting anonymity.

Gurugram-headquartered Serentica had earlier raised $650 million from private equity firm KKR. It also raised a $425-million loan this January from a consortium of international and domestic banks including Rabobank, MUFG Bank, Société Générale, YES Bank, Export-Import Bank of India, and India Infrastructure Finance Company.

In addition, the firm had raised ₹5,600 crore debt from state run Power Finance Corporation (PFC) and REC last year.

The company, which is focused on the commercial and industrial (C&I) segment, plans to develop 4 giga watt (GW) of renewable energy capacity—2.55 GW solar power and 1.4 GW wind power.

“Serentica is on a rapid growth trajectory and will explore different avenues of capital including internal accruals to fund this growth," a company spokesperson said in an emailed response to Mint’s queries. “However, we cannot comment on any specific transaction."

The C&I segment has attracted strong investor interest in recent times. The latest instance is EverSource Capital-backed Radiance Renewables Pvt. Ltd giving a formal mandate to Rothschild & Co. for the sale of its C&I platform, as reported by Mint earlier.

Also, Amplus founder Sanjeev Aggarwal and I Squared Capital have set up Hexa Climate Solutions, wherein the New York-based private equity fund will invest around $500 million in the company that will cater to C&I sector.

Attracted by the opportunity, state run REC Ltd’s arm REC Power Development and Consultancy Ltd and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (Bhel) this month announced their partnership to develop renewable energy projects that will focus on the C&I segment.

The interest in the C&I segment is being driven by the nation’s projected green energy trajectory, as well as rules allowing large power users to source energy from the open market rather than the costlier grid. Another factor that has worked in C&I’s favour is most state electricity regulatory commissions (SERCs) implementing Time of Day (ToD) tariff for large C&I category consumers. ToD tariff refers to electricity costs depending upon the time of day

C&I projects are also shielded from risks such as power procurement curtailment by state-run power distribution firms.

India has an installed renewable energy capacity of 180.79 GW, which includes 73.31 GW solar and 44.73 GW of wind power capacity. The country’s power demand has been clocking record highs in recent summers and is expected to set yet another new record of 260 GW in the coming summer.

This is attracting investors, with the country getting $6.13 billion foreign direct investment in the renewable energy sector from April 2020 till September 2023, according to the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).

Attracted by India’s green energy transition trajectory, several green energy deals are in play as reported by Mint.

This includes Sekura Energy Ltd, an energy sector-focused platform of Edelweiss Infrastructure Yield Plus Fund, being the front-runner to buy solar projects totalling 350 megawatts (MW) from O2 Power, with the deal likely to have an equity and enterprise value of $50 million and $200 million, respectively.

Also, NASDAQ-listed ReNew Energy Global Plc is in talks with Singapore’s Sembcorp Industries Ltd to sell solar energy projects totalling 350 MW, with the deal estimated to be valued at around $241 million at the enterprise level and around $121 million in terms of equity.

In addition, Azure Power Global Limited, India’s first renewable energy company to have listed in the US, is exploring a possible stake sale to a strategic partner or even a complete sale of the business.