Sterling and Wilson Solar to launch IPO this week

Mumbai-based Sterling and Wilson Solar (SWSL) will be the first Indian solar company to go public. It expects to raise Rs 3152 crore ($470 million), with a price band of Rs 775-780 per equity share of Rs 1 face value.

The IPO, which closes on Aug. 8, comprises an offer of up to Rs 2,083.33 crore from Shapoorji Pallonji and as much as Rs 1,041.67 crore of shares from Khurshed Yazdi Daruvala, Sterling and Wilson Solar’s chairman. Together, the two promoters plan to sell a stake of up to 25% in the IPO.

“We have been the largest solar EPC solutions provider in India from 2015 to 2018 based on annual installations of utility-scale PV systems of more than 5 MWp, according to IHS Markit,” the company said in its red herring prospectus.

As of March 31, SWSL had an installed capacity of 5.27 GW and nearly 1.6 GW of projects under implementation. The company also had 5.56 GW of solar power plants under O&M contracts, of which 28.3% were third-party contracts. It has an order book of about Rs 3,832 crore and had won bids and received letters of intent for another Rs 3,908 crore, as of March 31.

For 2018-19, 98.9% of the company’s revenue came from its EPC business. The rest came from its O&M division, the company stated in its prospectus.

With a presence in 26 countries, SWSL was the largest solar EPC solutions provider in India, Africa and the Middle East in 2018, according to IHS Markit, with respective market shares in each region of 16.6%, 36.6% and 40.4%. It was formed by the demerger of Sterling and Wilson Private Ltd’s solar EPC business, which was approved in March 2018.