Ladies and gentlemen, good day and Welcome to the FY 2022 earnings conference call of Adani Green, hosted by Investec Capital Services. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. We have with us the management of Adani Green. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Apoorva Bahadur from Investec. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Rupesh. Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. From the management we have with us Mr. Sagar Adani, Executive Director, Adani Green; Mr. Kaushal Shah, CFO; Mr. Raj Kumar Jain, Head Business Development; and Mr. Viral Raval, Lead IR. Without taking any more time, let me hand over the conference to Mr. Adani and team for their remarks, post which we'll open the floor for Q&A. Over to you, Sagar Adani.
Thank you, Apoorva, for a brief introduction. Thank you, friends, for joining this call.
It is Kaushal.
I am Kaushal Shah here, the CFO of Adani Green Energy. Warm welcome to all the participants for these earnings call to discuss the operational and the financial performance for the year ended March 31st, 2022. We have uploaded the earnings presentation on our website, and we hope that you would have sufficient time to go through the same. Let me walk through some of the recent updates, followed by an overview of our operational and financial performance. On a year-on-year basis, the operational capacity has increased by 56% to 5,410 MW with the persistent efforts of our team. Over and above, there are additional 1,600 MW which is being operational. But because of some technical reasons, we are not able to declare official COD.
Overall capacity as we speak is 7,200, and we are able to sell the power on a short-term basis on this. Further, the total portfolio now stands at 20,434 MW, with the latest PPA signing for 150-MW solar project with Punjab State DISCOMs. That is on the capacity side. On the strategic investment from the IHC, I am pleased to say that Abu Dhabi-based International Holding Company is in the process of investing $500 million as primary capital in AGEL. This will be a long-term investment in India as the country is driving much innovation globally, especially in the green energy sector. AGEL expects to play significant role in unlocking India's complete green energy potential and thus value, thus adding the value.
This investment will help AGEL deleverage its balance sheets, boost its credit rating profile, and thereby helping reduce the cost of capital and further support future growth. I'm pleased to say that yesterday we had an EGM and this resolution is passed, so we are expecting this money to flow before 15th of May. Another important milestone, as you are aware that, you know, the last year we have done the Asia's first construction facility of $1.35 billion. There is a further addition that AGEL has raised $288 million construction facility and thereby increasing the total construction rollover pool to $1.64 billion. The extended pool of liquidity strengthens the AGEL strategy to fast-track the development of its under-construction asset portfolio.
The facility is a green loan certified by ISS ESG and will have a significant contribution towards UN SDG 7, which is affordable and clean energy, and SDG 13, which is a climate action. You know this is in line with what we have told to our investor friends, that we have a fully funded growth plan for the entire 40 GW, which we are planning. This is one of the additions to that. Now I shall brief you about our progress and important milestone towards our ESG commitment. In line with our commitment and well ahead of our initial goal, 100% of AGEL's operating capacity is now single-use plastic-free. This is a major milestone which we have achieved.
AGEL has also featured in CDP India Disclosure Report 2021 as the only company in India in renewable sector disclosing greenhouse gas emissions in all the three scopes. Reaffirming the ESG commitment, AGEL has won the Golden Peacock Award for sustainability for the year 2021 in the renewable energies category. Over and above, as I have briefed in the last, we have done a benchmark in the governance also. The board, the audit committee is fully comprising of an independent directors. board structure is completely changed and majority of the committee we have an independent directors, heading and participating into that committee. Now let me brief you about the operational and financial performance.
The robust capacity addition and the best-in-class O&M practices have led to a continued impressive operational and financial performance for the year ended March 31st, 2022. If you look at the CUF, you know, which has improved by solar CUF, improved by 130 basis points year-on-year, and the wind CUF has improved by whopping 400 basis points to 30.8%. Over and above, you know, we have been able to achieve 100% plant availability, and the improved grid availability of 99%. All of these we have achieved in the midst of COVID pandemic, which was a hurdle for many of the, you know, our peers.
Wind CUF improvement is backed by technology advance and more efficient newly added wind turbine generators, improved plant availability of 97% and improved grid availability of 100% and improved wind speed. The sale of energy has increased by 72% to 9.26 million units, backed by a robust addition of 1,940 MW renewable capacity over the last one year, along with improved solar and wind CUF. Supported by the strong performance, AGEL's revenue from power supply has increased to INR 3,783 crore. EBITDA also from the power supply has increased by 60% year-on-year to INR 3,530 crore. EBITDA margin has improved by 100 basis points to 92%, which is, you know, normally 200 basis points higher than our immediate peers or competitors.
Cash profit has increased by 48% to INR 1,854 crores. A substantial cash surplus which is available, which we can use it for our growth purposes. If you look at the PAT, which has increased by 169% from INR 182 crores to INR 489 crores. In conclusion, the last fiscal year has been very eventful for us. We successfully completed acquisition of high quality SB Energy portfolio, which has been truly value accretive as evidenced in the overall improvement in the operational performance and further strengthening of our counterparty profile. At the same time, we have fulfilled our commitment to fast-track greenfield renewable capacity development. Further, we are aiming to integrate newer technologies that will improve the efficiency of power generations while also lowering the cost of electricity.
In FY 2022, we have also made considerable progress on the ESG front, and our commitment to light up a sustainable future is only growing stronger as AGEL continues to get global recognition of its ESG efforts through the rating from the multiple prominent ESG rating agencies and significant ESG-focused investment. With this, I would like to stop here, and the floor is open for the questions if you have. Thank you.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Rahul Modi from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Thank you and congratulations, Sagar and Kaushal Shah for a great set of numbers. Just a couple of questions on, you know, the scenario going ahead. As you mentioned that out of the 5.5 GW we've commissioned, we've got another almost 2 GW, which is almost there. For the balance 13 GW, when do we expect the capacities to get commissioned over whether it's two, three or four years? And how much CapEx is pending for the same?
Basically what you should do when you know you calculate every year you should consider average 3 GW of capacity addition as a ballpark figure. This, I'm talking about only greenfield. If we do you know anything above inorganic growth, that will be an extra. That is one thing, you know, 3 GW-3.5 GW is a ballpark figure which we are going to add every year. The CapEx figure every year we are targeting about you know INR 20,000 crore every year for this over the period of next four years. You can consider that around INR 80,000 crore will be likely CapEx over the period of next four years.
Okay. That's very helpful. One thing, if you could throw some light on of late, you know, post-COVID and during COVID times, we've seen that Chinese solar module companies have actually reneged on contracts, at least on the price contracts. That's caused a lot of delays. We've almost seen +25% kind of a cost escalation from their side. Are you facing any delays from that front? How are we tackling that situation?
Yes. Hi, Sagar here. There have been instances across the board of managing contracts and not following through with the prices and terms and conditions that they had signed to, not for us, but for everyone. Of course, we have also faced that issue. From a delivery point of view, although we have been able to manage deliveries for all the projects in time, hence we've been able to commission what we've commissioned over the last 12 months. Deliveries have not been an issue for us, but price certainly has been. We've seen projects go up in overall total project costs from about 5%-7%.
We have also been able to sell a lot of the power on the short-term exchange. As you're very well aware, prices right now are very, very accretive. We've been able to sell a lot of that power at, you know, INR 12-INR 10 per unit, INR 12 per unit, INR 7 per unit. We've been able to offset a lot of those cost increases by enhanced revenue before commissioning of the project.
Okay. Okay, that's great. The last question from my side, of the INR 38,000 crore debt, for FY 2022, so how much would be the floating rate debt, which can probably get impacted if, you know, on any revision or upward movement in the interest rates?
Majority of our debt is a fixed coupon, so we are not expecting any major movement to our debt, which is currently at around, on an average, around 8.8%. We don't see any major movement in that particular. In fact, we have a plan to, you know, reduce some of the debt by having, you know, the domestic bond issuance and other things. Certain some of the loans which are at a little higher rates will also bring down the overall cost.
Right. Thank you very much and all the best.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Mohit Kumar from DAM Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good afternoon, sir, and congratulations on the capital raise and a very good year. So my first question is, you said that 1.2 GW is waiting for capacity addition. What is this technical thing which is stopping us from declaring commerciality? Is there some penalty under the PPAs which can be imposed to us? I do understand that we are selling at a high prices that can offset the same.
No, there's no penalties under the PPA. Hi, Mohit, thank you for your question. There's no penalties because still we are well within the PPA timelines for all the projects, and we are not overshooting the legal PPA date by any means, because our projects were commissioned significantly earlier than when legally we are expected to complete them. There are a few technical low voltage related issues here or there, which is why we are not able to give full legal COD, but we're still able to sell a significant portion of that capacity on the exchange today. That's the. It's more it's a techno legal issue wherein there is some technical issues in transmission lines here or there in some small chunks of that overall capacity.
At the same time, we also need 100% completion for being able to declare it as the full plant being commercially CODed. Once those small issues are rectified, we should be able to, which is only 2%-3% of the total capacity. We'll be able to declare full COD on the plant completely.
Is there a compensation payable by these discounts in case this is delayed for, let's say, theoretically?
No. As long as we supply to them within the PPA timeline, which is something that we are confident we'll be able to do, there's no penalties of any sort.
Understood. Secondly, sir, we have raised, we are raising INR 38 billion, right? That is a very decently large chunk. We also have a holdco bond of INR 55 billion. There's a large amount which is supposed to repay in FY 2025. Is this INR 35 billion which you're raising right now, is it, is there a plan to reduce this holdco debt? Or do you think the FY 2025, you will take care of it later and this will be used for equity requirement for our portfolio?
This will primarily go in for growth and the INR 38 billion, and that is what will accelerate the development plans of AGEL. If you see the holdco debt, the way it is sized is via an NPV of future equity cash flows. As soon as we accelerate the portfolio and we grow faster and better, the capacity for drawing on holdco debt significantly increases as well. In fact, in FY 2025, there'll be a significant amount of cash flow coming from down beneath as well. We will pay back part of holdco debt and part of it will continue for after.
Of course it depends on the situation at that point in time in terms of the opportunities in front of us, in terms of you know, various different things. We have a senior debt of RG1, which is due for refinancing in FY 2025. We'll be refinancing that as a senior debt, but the holdco bond, part of it will pay back, part of it will continue, depending on you know, whether we have any acquisitions that we can do or if there is space for drawing that capacity for further growth. We'll take a decision at that point in time.
Given everything, is this INR 38 billion sufficient, do you think, for developing your entire portfolio of 20 GW, or do you think you need to raise equity at some point of time?
No. INR 38 billion will be fully funded because, as you very well would be aware, INR 38 billion is in addition to the capacity that we have for raising wholesale debt and the significant free cash flow to equity coming from our plants every single year, which number rises astronomically year on year. We have quite. We don't expect or foresee any equity raises after this.
Understood. Lastly, sir, what was the money paid to acquire the SoftBank acquisition asset? Can you just let us know the amount which you paid? I think INR 79 billion of debt has come from SoftBank acquisition. You can just give the equity portion or equity amount which you paid to the company. If are there any legal issues or the issues with the PPA which we can foresee which can, there could be some issue in terms of installing the entire capacity of 5 GW?
Mohit, for the acquisition, you know, the equity which we have paid roughly is INR 5,300 crore. That was the consideration which we have paid for the equity. The remaining was the, you know, the overall enterprise value which we have decided. This is what we have agreed. The date which has come up, now, that enterprise value is inclusive of entire CapEx, which we are going to do to complete the project, because only 1,700 MW was operational. The remaining CapEx was pending.
that was what we have agreed with them was the enterprise value, out of which the equity which we have paid is INR 5,300 crore, and the remaining which we are going to, you know, incur over the next three years, two years for the making project operational.
With regards to the execution of PPAs, we don't foresee any legal trouble. In fact, what we are seeing now is that because of the increase in power demand in the country, there is a resounding demand for PPAs. Of course, the INR 2, INR 2.5 , INR 2.7 PPAs seem to the DISCOMs as a very, very cheap alternative to the INR 12 , INR 13 power they are buying from the exchange today. DISCOMs are looking very strongly to sign PPAs as quickly as they can. Because of that, we don't expect any issues with any of the PPAs in that portfolio.
Understood, sir. Thank you and all the best. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Dhruv Muchhal from HDFC Asset Management. Please go ahead.
Yeah, sir. Two questions. The first is on the commissioned capacity of 5.4 GW. What will be the annualized EBITDA run rate? The reported number is about INR 3,500 crores. I understand part of the capacity is, you know, for half of the year or say part of the year. Possible to share the annualized run rate?
Run rate EBITDA will be roughly around INR 6,000 crores.
Sir, for this INR 5,000, the commissioned capacity of 5.4 GW?
No. The operating capacity.
So, so-
7.2 GW
Yeah. One minute.
We are including the capacity, which is almost commissioned, but because of the technical.
It's operating already.
It's already operating. Yes.
I was wondering, coming from the end of Q4 numbers. Including the 1,700, which is almost commissioned, operating already, the run rate will be about INR 6,000 crore? The EBITDA, annualized EBITDA run rate will be about INR 6,000 crore.
It will be INR 6,200 crores for 7,200 MW of operating capacity.
Got it. All right. This will be reflected in FY 2024 now. Got it, sir. The second question more on a strategic side is, from reports you understand that the larger group is planning to also venture into the green hydrogen side. Just to understand, given the requirement of solar and wind will be a significant player, so plus some of the other technologies. How does, you know, structuring happen? Does Adani Green get to play a part in that hydrogen segment, or will it be the other groups? I mean, the solar or wind energy will be supplied by Adani Green, or does that happen, the entity which is putting the hydrogen plant?
The hydrogen project is happening in an entity underneath the Adani Enterprises Limited, which is Adani New Industries Limited, ANIL. I'm sorry, we cannot speak to the management of that because that's an independent business who will-
Okay.
Work out their independent business plan and their independent structuring in a way that suits them best, you know, even from a taxation, et cetera, point of view. Because there is some GST complications and stuff like that. Independent of how the contracting takes place, I definitely see that AGEL will have a very key role to play, either in the form of supply of power or in terms of providing the management services under a contract to that entity. Because the AGEL is where the expertise for solar and wind lies, and that entity will definitely rely on AGEL's expertise for executing whatever they need to do in terms of Green Energy.
Okay. The second part. First, I understand probably you will be setting up the plant and probably supplying the power. The second part is, as a service provider for setting up the plant and operating them, right?
No. Whether or not the plants will be set up on AGEL's books or the book of ANIL is more a taxation structuring matter, which we cannot speak to because it's housed under a different entity. But ANIL, I'm sure, will announce their own plans in due course when you will have better visibility on these items.
Got it, sir. Sure, sir. Thank you so much, sir. Thanks. Thanks for your time.
Thank you, Dhruv Muchhal.
Thank you. Participants who wish to ask a question may press star and one. The next question is from the line of Nikhil Nigania from Bernstein. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good afternoon, sir. Sir, wanted to understand what is the impact on returns on the projects, especially given the inflationary environment, whereas wind turbine prices are going up and interest rates are also expected to increase. What is the impact that you're seeing on your expected returns, especially on large projects like the manufacturing project?
Nikhil, we definitely, there is a little bit of a dip in equity returns from what we would have if we had set up those projects a year ago versus today. Of course, there is an impact. From a capital point of view, there are two aspects to how we look at it. One, that we are able to set up the projects significantly because, you know, we have the land ready, we have the evacuation ready, and we have had all these years of expertise to be able to commission the projects significantly before when the PPA deadlines are. We're able to recoup a lot of these additional costs by additional power sales in either exchanges or otherwise, which offset the increase in cost of construction of the plants.
We've been able to do that, which is something that we believe we will continue to be able to do. That's for the offset of increased cost. With regards to the increased interest rate and the interest cost, we are able to raise funding in the market today as a company at one of the most competitive rates from any of our peers. I was just saying about the increased interest rates, and we've been able to raise funds. Of course, the spread has increased a little bit for us as it has for other people, and that could impact our equity returns marginally. We don't see a significant difference because of that.
Understood, sir. Second question I had was along the lines of receivables. Receivables, as you know, many investors have seen that as a challenge, given the health of Indian DISCOMs. Any improvement you see on that front or does that continue to be area of concern for generators in general from here?
SECI and NTPC have historically always paid on time. They did continue to pay on time through COVID, and they still do continue to pay on time every single month on month, with complete regularity. That's where on an overall portfolio basis, that's where more than 80% of our portfolio is. We're very comfortable and confident about that. With regards to particular state DISCOMs, two of which we had an issue in the past, which was Tamil Nadu and Telangana. Both of them, we have been able to just recently receive significant chunks of money from. Telangana, we are 100% current now, both in terms of receivables of principal as well as the late payment surcharge, the LPS.
With Tamil Nadu as well, we have received a significant amount of money, about INR 400 crore. We are also about at, I think, down from, at about 1/2 to two months, down from eight months earlier. We've been in fact seeing a significantly better receivables position from the state DISCOMs as well compared to a year or two ago.
Got it. Good to hear that, sir. One last question from my end. There were two regulatory or macro situations. One was regarding a habitat area of an endangered bird in Rajasthan, which was stalling construction of a lot of projects. Second, regarding the MNRE list of approved suppliers, where Chinese suppliers weren't there. On both these fronts, do you see any challenges to existing pipeline projects or not a big challenge for Adani Green?
For Adani Green particularly, it's not a challenge because, as you know, this issue has been to the fore since the last year and a half to almost two years now. It's not something that is new. In the last two years after this issue was raised and after this became an issue for the sector overall, we were still able to execute about 2.5 MW-3,000 MW in the Rajasthan Jaisalmer area because our plants fundamentally are outside of the GIB area. That is not something that is a matter of an issue or a concern for us. There are a few additional approvals that we now need procedurally to do some of the further work that we need to do, but I don't see that as stopping the work that we are doing.
Of course, we'll have to, you know, go into an additional loop of approvals, and if managed properly, then it should not be any sort of a problem. With regards to the ALMM, the certification that is required for Chinese modules, I again, our projects in the pipeline will not get affected because we've made adequate measures and adequate needful in terms of what we need to source. We do see that as a significant risk factor for the sector overall. We've made our arrangements to that effect, so it should not be a problem for Adani Green's pipeline.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Lay Peng Goh from Fullerton Fund Management. Please go ahead.
Hi. Can you check on slide 42 on the right-hand side column. There's a mention of, I think it's about the funding going forward. In terms of timing, what kind of timing are we looking at?
Hi. Sorry, can you please repeat your question?
Okay. Let me turn to the slide again. On slide 42, on the right-hand column at the bottom box, there's a mention of future dollar bonds. I think this is referring to the restricted groups going forward, right? That you can recycle the capital for more investment.
Again, I'm sorry. I'm not sure what slide you are referring to or what number you're referring to, but
I think you turn to slide 42 of the presentation for the results.
We don't have; we only have a 40-slide presentation for the earnings. Are you referring to some different presentation?
I got this from the website. Yeah, I downloaded the wrong-
I mean, so sorry. Typically, the dollar bond issuance that we will have going forward is typically for recycling some of the Indian debt that we borrow at.
All right.
At the senior debt level. At the project level. The business model or the methodology through which we do it is we used to typically raise Indian funding or even if it's international funding from international banks at the construction stage. We replace that with long-term dated international bonds through the life of the asset. So that is something that must be what you are referring to. Yes, we do have a program year on year to be doing that on a consistent basis as our assets come online.
It will be similar to the RG-I and RG-II kind of framework, right?
Yes. They will be more similar to RG-II than RG-I.
Okay. For this financial year, how much is the cash flow going from the two RGs to the holdco?
We'll let you know in one second.
Oh, thanks. Thanks.
It will be a total of about $60 million being upstreamed to the holdco from both the RGs.
This is the Adani's portion, $60 million.
$60 million, yes. Going up to the IHC to the holding company.
Okay. Maybe just one last question from me. When you increase the ECB amount, because the amount is from $1.3 billion to probably like $1.6 billion , right? From $1.35 billion to $1.64 billion.
Right.
What's the reason for the increase? Cause it's not a huge amount in that sense compared to the total.
We are setting up a new greenfield project. The project cost of which is $400 million. The debt portion of which is $400 million. We are raising $400 million of additional debt to fund the CapEx of the greenfield project that we are executing right now.
Right. It's solar, 100% solar plan?
Yes.
Okay. Thanks. That's all from me. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Bharani Jayakumar from Spark Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Am I audible?
Hi, yes, you are.
Good evening, sir. My first question is, I just want to know the quantum of projects won since April 2021, in bidding, say, either from SECI or from the States by Adani Green. That is essentially FY 2022, in that financial year.
It's 600 MW.
Okay. Because this number is smaller than the number we used to have in the earlier years. Just trying to understand the impact on the 600 MW of projects due to this ALMM list. Someone had also alluded to it in the earlier question. Essentially, this 600 MW projects need to procure modules only from the list approved by the government, if I'm not wrong. Correct?
Out of this, we need 150 MW that need to be procured only from the list. The other 450 MW, we are open to procure from outside.
Right. Essentially, any bid that is coming up from now would require it to be adhering to that list, if I'm not wrong.
That is correct. Yes.
Sure. With the industry seeing close to, say, 10-15 GW of awarding even in FY 2022. Do you think we have enough capacity? Of course, we don't have enough capacity, but what kind of delays in project execution would happen because of this? How is it going to be feasible from the government side to ensure timely project execution?
I think there is definitely a lot of ramps up going on significantly on the manufacturing side by a lot of people. Certainly, we are doing it. It becomes a question of how much capacities will come online, manufacturing capacities, by what point in time. Sure, there may be a few months of mismatches here and there, but we do think that with the award of the PLI and with, you know, all of these things that a lot of these projects would have modules available in the near future.
The next question is, at what point in time, or at by end of each year, how much do you think would be the module assembly or manufacturing capacity in India according to you, say by end of 2023, end of 2024?
I think by about FY 2025 we should reach about a 40 GW per annum capacity in the country.
Okay. Right now, it would be around 10 GW, right?
Right now, it would be around 10 GW. Yes, you are right.
Okay. Essentially we are dependent on the capacities coming up due to the PLI schemes.
Due to the PLI schemes and people setting it up independent of the PLI scheme as well. There are some parties who are setting up module and cell facilities independent of PLI schemes under various state government incentive schemes and stuff like that. Those are coming up independently. PLI schemes are more kind of integrated capacities which are coming up.
Got it. Sure. The second question is on the expected amount of awarding activity by either say, SECI or states. We have seen a little bit of a slowdown there, so what would be the expectation in the next one or two years, FY 2023, 2024?
The slowdown has mainly been on account of COVID and on account of non-clarity of rise in power demand because of the uncertain scenario caused by COVID. Now I think it is abundantly clear to all the state distribution companies, as well as the central government companies, that power demand is significantly increasing in the country and that it will constantly and consistently continue to rise, which is why we are expecting very significant auction capacities coming from state DISCOMs and SECI and NTPC this year. While I cannot speak to a certain specific number because I cannot speak on behalf of SECI, NTPC or the state DISCOMs, we expect that number to be pretty significant.
Okay. Since you alluded to the power shortage scenario, since you mentioned we are selling infirm power in the short-term market, why do you think even despite that there is still shortage and power load shedding? Is it because of the time mismatch? Because solar would be selling probably in the daytime and probably the peak demand is in the evening. Is it because of that?
That's a part of the reason, but there's also the quantum of demand is significantly higher than the total quantum of supply. There is an overall issue also that even in the afternoon times, if you see, prices are still INR 8, INR 10, INR 12, even after selling all this power on the exchange. There is a gap in the afternoon, and there is a much higher gap in the evening. The gap is just there consistently throughout because of the rising demand.
Okay. You would be selling in the GTAM market or in the GDAM market, sir?
We sell on both.
Could you give us a little bit of color on why you would prefer one over the other? What are the merits or demerits?
I mean, if you want details around the GTAM, GDAM market, then, you know, we're happy to set up a separate call, I think. I'm just conscious of the time of everyone on the call right now.
No, no.
You know, you can reach out to our management and to Viral, and he'll have the relevant team from our side walk you through the nuances of both markets and the pluses and minuses of each.
Great. Thank you so much, and all the best.
Perfect. Thank you.
Yes.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Nirav Shah from GeeCee Holdings. Please go ahead.
Hey, good evening, sir, and thanks for the opportunity. Most questions have been answered, just a couple of them. Sir, in your opening remarks you mentioned that you'll be adding around 3 GW every year. Say for this year's execution capacity, would that also include that 1.6 GW because that's a spillover from last year?
Yes. Overall, you know, this year we are talking about 2.2 GW and plus spillover of last year's.
You'll be adding 3.8 GW. You'll exceed that close to 9 GW?
We should be around 9.2 GW.
9.2 GW. Got it. That's fine. Just a second question is on our group press release at the time of you know IHC investing $2 billion in our group. We have also mentioned that both IHC and Adani portfolio are looking at strategic opportunities in India, Middle East and Africa. Is Adani Green also looking at outside India opportunities in that sense? Or it's more pertaining to the other two companies?
Nirav, our focus mainly Adani Green particularly remains India and the opportunities in India. There are a lot of different opportunities that do come up from time to time outside. If it is not only profitable but material in terms of size and volume, we do not participate in it. If there is an opportunity which comes tomorrow in some other place which is most profitable and significant in terms of volume, then we may look at it. The predominant focus remains India and is expected to continue to remain India as we go forward.
Got it. Thanks a lot and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Subhadip Mitra from JM Financial. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon and thank you for the opportunity. My question was a little bit more on the lines of, you know, how do you see the transition of the solar module technology, you know, from a Mono PERC to a TOPCon versus HJT. You know, how do you see these technologies maturing or is there any preference that you have in terms of your own strategy towards, you know, which of these technologies with regard to your own manufacturing plants?
We think that a year or two from now, TOPCon will start to become the mainstream, and three to four years from now, HJT will start to become the mainstream from a Chinese module manufacturer's perspective. Now, looking at a lot of different scenarios and a lot of different constraints around the access and availability and the cost of these technologies in India, we are in the process of evaluating in detail the pros and cons of a Mono PERC versus a TOPCon versus an HJT for an investment that we are making on the manufacturing side as we go forward. We still under that evaluation.
We've not made a clear decision on that, but we should be in a place to be able to make a decision on that very soon. In principle, TOPCon and HJT do seem interesting and attractive. While there is a few complications that come with it, there is a merit in terms of, you know, going for those technologies as we go forward.
Understood. My understanding is that, you know, transitioning from a mono PERC to a TOPCon is doable and easy to do, whereas HJT probably is a completely different, you know, setup. If one goes and one-
Even TOPCon is, while, yes, not as different as HJT, it is significantly different still. There is a couple of additional process steps involved for which the expertise and experience is not there in India right now. One has to weigh that very carefully before making an investment decision on the manufacturing side. Because you don't want to set up a technology which you can't run effectively going forward. That's the thing that we need to consider. Yeah.
Got it. If one goes in one direction in terms of setting up a manufacturing technology based on one tech, it would be difficult to suddenly transition into a completely different technology. That's what you're trying to say, right?
Absolutely. Yes.
Got it. Second question is, you know, I think one of the earlier questions you were, you know, speaking more in detail about the kind of peak demand scenario that we are seeing today. Just wanted to get your perspective on, you know, the way demand is growing today, and it seems to be more on the peak side and probably more during the evening hours. Are you sensing, you know, a higher demand for, you know, future tenders, which would be on, you know, solar plus battery type or solar plus storage? Those kind of bids would now kind of become the mainstream.
Solar and wind will continue in terms of, you know, the volumes. Because India, the way we look at it and the way we look at the landscape is India as a country and, you know, of course, with different nuances in different states and different DISCOMs, all of them need everything. They need solar, they need wind, they need thermal, they need solar with battery, they need solar and wind hybrids, they need hybrids with battery, they need hybrids of renewables with thermal combined, which was the RTC bid, which was brought out by SECI. All of these different sorts of bids will be required. You know, of course, a particular DISCOM, because of their own nuances, might need one more than the other.
In general, the basket of solutions will be needed to be brought out by SECI and NTPC for solving the demand needs of all the DISCOMs. Everything will have to go on in parallel, basically.
Understood. Last question is, you know, between a solar plus battery and, you know, a hydro pump storage kind of a solution, is there any preference between the two? Do you actually see any one of them getting more economical with time?
Between which two? I'm sorry.
You have pumped storage.
Right.
versus solar plus, you know, battery storage.
Oh, correct. Yeah. No, again, I think that both will have their own uses and niches. I think it's something if you want a gigawatt level scale stable power, then pump storage is the solution right now because solar plus battery still at a gigawatt scale. Sure, you can do 100 MW, 200 MW here and there, but at a gigawatt scale, that becomes difficult to implement and in terms of both availability and cost. We see today on a independent basis, pump hydro being a little more competitive compared to solar plus full battery. Of course, with the cost curve of batteries coming down, that equation may change in the near future.
Understood. Thank you so much for answering my questions.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Girish Achhipalia from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. I just had couple of questions. One was this comment made around the debt, and you said a large portion of your debt is fixed cost. When you say that, it's forever fixed cost? I mean, is it like you have some three-to-four-year arrangement and then it rises? Or how does it actually work? Or is it till perpetuity? I mean, till for the life of the debt it will be 8.8% only. Second was, what is the new debt costing you for the new projects? I may have missed that, sorry.
We can have specific numbers shared with you offline. Just from a guidance perspective, there's about 25% of our debt, which is in perpetuity fixed cost, which is basically the RG-II type construct, where we have 20-year fixed cost paper. Almost entirely all the debt that we are issuing going forward is in that construct, where for the life of 20 years or 22 years, the cost of debt will be fixed, which is the senior debt that we raise at the project level. We also do raise some debt in our projects from some of the Indian banks. Those facilities are more fixed-term in nature for a one-year rolling basis.
The cost of those facilities is fixed for a year and is linked to some sort of an RBI rate. From an overall percentage perspective, it's a much lower percentage in our portfolio. We will also be issuing NCDs domestically, which will be fixed-term paper as we go forward. We are also raising some holdco level debt, which is again also fixed for a period of three years and gets refinanced after three years and is again fixed for a forward period of about three to five years. That's the basket of different debts that we have. More or less, what we have today is fixed more or less, just broadly speaking.
What we will have in the future as well will continue to remain fixed for the tenure of the PPA. Because that's an underlying capital management philosophy of Adani Green, where we do not want to introduce debt risk to our equity investors. That continues as a fundamental philosophy. From a going forward cost of debt basis, we typically are raising at 7.5%-8% levels for the projects that we are closing going forward with Indian banks and about 8.5%-9% coverage from international bond issues.
This is a full year basis.
Full year basis.
Okay.
Just to add to what Sagar brother has told, you know, during the construction period, we open the letter of credit in favor of supplier, which is being done at the 50 basis points and the discount whereby, you know, our interest cost is 4.5%. Almost for a period of nine months to 12 months, we have a cost of around only 5%- 5.5% during the greenfield construction. This is the most economical way of optimizing the overall debt portfolio cost.
Okay. Sagar Adani and Kaushal Shah, the other question was on M&A. When you are looking at some of the recent deals that are happening, whether it is Shell or Tata Power, et cetera, I mean, Is the M&A landscape becoming more challenging in terms of finding reasonably valued deals? How is it right now, I mean, is the inorganic growth aspiration probably lower than it was, let's say, a year back for you guys in terms of finding the right deals? Second part of that question was not from an equity raising perspective, but are you getting a lot of incoming inquiries in terms of maybe, you know, participating with you?
I mean, TotalEnergies was a big transaction which has already happened, but are you getting similar interest again and again, I mean, as a renewable story plays out?
Two questions of yours. First, M&A opportunities. We are very clear. We have been historically, and we continue to be very clear that we will do inorganic growth only when two conditions are met. One is that the asset quality on the ground is fundamentally robust and very, very solid because we look at these assets as 35–40-year assets and not just a 25-year PPA life. That continues to remain as a very, very important gating item for us. In addition to that, we also make sure that the value at which we're able to do it is something that is finally equity accretive to equity, because no point growing megawatts when value does not enhance.
That's, those are two aspects that we are very clear about, which we've historically been very clear about as well, which is why you would have seen that we've done very specific, particularly chosen M&As where we feel that there is an opportunity for a significant amount of value creation. That is something we'll continue to do as we go forward. There are a lot of platforms available in the market who want to sell, but we will be very choosy and we will pick the right ones that make sense for our enhancement of equity value. That is number one answer to your question. Your second question was, again, can you please remind me? Inward interest.
Yes.
Into our platform. Sorry. For that, you know, again, we have always been and we still today continue to get a lot of inbound interest. Abu Dhabi's investment via IHC of $500 million into Adani Green has been a second step, so to speak, for us after Total. Still there is a lot of inbound interest, but our platform does not need equity to grow. We're in a position to be very careful in terms of who we choose to be our partner as we go forward because we don't need the money. But the strategic aspect and the strategic rationale of joining hands has to make sense for us.
That is something which is the case with Abu Dhabi, and it's something that we will continue to always look for as we look at other alternate opportunities as well. From our point of view, we are not actively looking to raise equity because the platform does not need it.
Okay, perfect. Thank you.
Yeah.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Apoorva Bahadur from Investec Capital Services. Please go ahead.
Right. Just I'll quickly ask one last question, I think before we close the call. Just wanted to understand, we are hearing that TEPI is going to come up with RE plus thermal blending tenders. Are we looking at that opportunity? Any idea on what size that could be? And will we be working with the other group entity on this?
Answer to all of that is yes. The size is a reflection of what the bid comes out and what we're able to win. We will try to look at significant quantum's in those bids as we go forward.
Great. I think that's all from our side. No further questions. We can close the call. Rupaja?
Sure. Would management like to give any closing comments?
No, thank you everyone for joining, and we appreciate your time and we look forward to building on whatever we've been doing at Adani Green. You know, it's a very exciting story. It's something that we are very well prepped for. We will continue to execute the way that we have for the last couple of years, because at the end of the day, that is what matters. Setting up capacity on the ground and growing our portfolio, our megawatts, our free cash flow and our EBITDA remains the focus from a management point of view. We'll continue to build on that and hopefully deliver consistently exceeding performance year on year. Thank you everyone for joining, and thank you for your time.
Thank you.
Thank you.
On behalf of Investec Capital Services, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.