6 February 2025
Money Control
Op-eds
Sinha said the Union Budget for FY26 aims to
achieve high-impact growth while keeping the fiscal deficit within the 4.4
percent target, ensuring macroeconomic stability
Gurugram-based ReNew is pegging its growth on India’s
energy transition journey, as the company prepares to delist from Nasdaq.
ReNew, among the biggest renewable energy firms in
India, has formed a special committee to evaluate an offer to take the company
private. The deal values ReNew at $2.82 billion, wherein primary shareholders Canada
Pension Plan Investment Board, UAE-based Masdar, ReNew Chairman Sumant Sinha
and a unit of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority have offered to buy shares at
$7.07 each.
When asked what prompted the consortium to offer such a deal, ReNew’s founder, chairman and CEO Sumant Sinha said it is a strategic move to focus on “where the action lies”. “If anything at all, I see India’s position in the clean energy sector becoming more robust going forward,” he said in an interview to Moneycontrol.
“In fact, even before
Trump came in as the President (of the United States), since about two to three
years, the cleantech sector in the US had not been trading very well. Now with
Trump becoming the President, there is all the more downward pressure on
cleantech stocks. I think it's an uncertain future for a lot of (cleantech)
companies in the US now,” Sinha said.
“Now
keep in mind that none of this impacts us as a company, because our entire
business is in India. But it's just that when the whole sector gets impacted,
then we were also getting impacted,” he added.
The main outcome of COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan,
was the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG), which sets a target of $300
billion in annual climate finance for developing countries by 2035. India had
made an uncharacteristically strong criticism of the Baku agreement, calling
the final agreed amount “abysmally poor” and “paltry”.
ReNew has an operating renewable portfolio of 10.4
gigawatts (GW), all of which is in India. The mix includes 4.8 GW wind, 5.5 GW
of solar and 99 MW hydro.
Sinha said the Union Budget for FY26 aims to achieve high-impact growth while keeping the fiscal deficit within the 4.4 percent target, ensuring macroeconomic stability. He added that the Rs 20,000 crore allocation for nuclear energy and the proposed legislative reforms demonstrate a forward-thinking approach to energy security and decarbonization.
Sinha, however, said
the ReNew has not yet considered foraying into nuclear power generation.
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