KKR to invest $400 million in Anil Agarwal-backed Serentica Renewables

Global investment firm KKR will invest $400 million (about Rs 3,262 crore) in Anil Agrawal-backed Serentica Renewables. The US-based firm is looking to create a new energy platform alongside Serentica to provide clean energy solutions and help large industrial platforms decarbonise. It is not yet known how much stake KKR will buy in the company. Pratik Agarwal, director of Serentica Renewables, said, “This transaction is amongst the largest industrial decarbonisation investments in India to date and carries forward the global decarbonisation agenda which is centre stage at COP27 (2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference).” Agrawal also added that out of the $400 million investment, $100 million will go towards “growth capital”, while the rest will be invested in the project. Standard Chartered Bank was the sole financial advisor to Serentica for the deal. Details about the companies: KKR has invested almost over $15 billion globally in renewable resources like wind and solar energy, totalling an operational power generation capacity of 23 GW as of 31 December 2021. The US-based firm sees renewables as crucial to its infrastructure strategy in the Asia Pacific region. In 2020, KKR set up renewable energy platform Virescent Infrastructure to own and operate renewable assets in India. Its most recent investment was $450 million in New Delhi-based Hero Group’s renewables arm Hero Future Energies. As for Serentica, the organisation is wholly-owned by Anil Agarwal’s Twinstar Overseas, which has the controlling stake in Sterlite Technologies and Sterlite Power Transmission. The company set up its decarbonisation platform this September. Through the deal with KKR, Serentica plans to initially supply 100 megawatts of power to large-scale and energy-intensive industrial customers and help them on their path to net-zero emissions, as per Economic Times. The Gurugram-based company’s medium term goal is to supply over 16 billion units of clean energy every year and displace 20 million tonnes of carbon emissions. It also plans to install 5,000 MW of carbon-free generation capacity for the same. Serentica is in the process of developing 1,500 MW of wind and solar projects in states like Rajasthan, Karnataka and Maharashtra and has also inked three long-term power purchase agreements. Read all the Latest News , Trending News ,  Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.