Solar photovoltaic (PV) cell manufacturer Jupiter International on Monday said it has raised Rs 170 crore from Edelweiss Alternative Asset Advisors Ltd. The company will utilise the funds as growth capital to enhance its solar PV cell manufacturing capacity, according to a statement.
The fresh capital was raised through a combination of debt and convertible-to-equity instrument.
“Jupiter Group is in the process of rapid expansion. We will commission the new 500-MW Mono PERC cell manufacturing facility in the next six months. We also have plans to set up a greenfield (new) capacity of 2,000 MW (megawatts) integrated cell plus module line,” Alok Garodia, managing director of Jupiter International, said.
He added that the backing from Edelweiss, which is one of the largest funds in India, is crucial for the company at this stage.
Kriti Mohan Ghosh, executive vice-president of Edelweiss Alternative Asset Advisors, said demand for domestic solar cells is at the cusp of an exceptional growth phase fuelled by favourable government policies.
Since the implementation of WTO-compliant domestic content requirement (DCR) policy two years ago, the government has taken up a slew of initiatives including levy of basic customs duty (BCD) and production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme under the Atmanirbhar initiative of GoI.
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In the past few months, leading players in the solar manufacturing sector have announced expansion plans.
Several new strategic players are also in the process of making a foray into the solar manufacturing value chain giving fillip to government plans to establish domestic solar manufacturing ecosystem.
Centrum Capital Ltd was the exclusive advisor to Kolkata-based Jupiter International on this transaction.