Moser Baer sells 6.5 percent stake in photovoltaic unit for Rs.411 crore to fund capacity expansion

• IBTimes RSS
• Print
• E-Mail
• digg
• Del.icio.us

According to a company statement, the consortium of investors include Japanese Bank Nomura, UK-based CDC Group, Switzerland-based Credit Suisse, US-based Morgan Stanley and India-based IDFC.

The dilution of stake will see the New Delhi-based company's stake in the unit fall to 93.5 percent.

Yogesh Mathur, Group CFO, Moser Baer India, said the funds raised would be used to expand its crystalline silicon cell manufacturing capacity to 180 megawatts from 80 megawatts and thin film capacity to 120 megawatts from 40 megawatts.

The company, Mathur said, is planning to raise another Rs.200 crore ($50 million) by the end of the current fiscal year. It is possible that the same consortium of investors would also fund then, he said.

Earlier, in February, the company said it plans to invest over $1.7 billion in expanding its thin film photovoltaic (PV) capacity by 565 megawatts in a greenfield plant in Chennai.

Moser Baer presently has a crystalline silicon cell and thin film manufacturing facility in Greater Noida near Delhi and is setting up a thin film photovoltaic plant in Chennai.

In the last fiscal year, the photovoltaic unit reported revenue of $42.2 million, contributing about 8.5 percent of Moser Baer's total revenue.

Moser Baer had raised $100 million in the photovoltaic unit in November 2007 and plans to invest about $400 million in the unit during the current fiscal year.

"We are pleased with the rapid strides that our photovoltaic business is making, as we work towards enabling solar power as a competitive source of energy. This funding from global investors will provide great impetus to the expansion plans we have for the photovoltaic business. It also allows Moser Baer to develop a significant global multi-technology platform and consolidate our leadership position in the global photovoltaic business," said Ratul Puri, Executive Director, Moser Baer India.

• 1
• 2