Global Infrastructure Partners’ Indian renewables platform gets ‘‘Provisional CRISIL AAA/Stable” rating

Vector Green Energy, the Indian renewables platform wholly owned by funds managed by Global Infrastructure Partners (“GIP”) in India, has been awarded the highest rating of ‘AAA/stable’ by CRISIL for a group of its solar power generating plants (“Restricted Group”).

As per CRISIL – “Instruments with this rating are considered to have the highest degree of safety regarding timely servicing of financial obligations. Such instruments carry lowest credit risk”.

This rating is for the Rs 1,237 crore non-recourse financing of the Restricted Group consisting of 356 MWp of operating solar power projects located across the country in the states of Rajasthan, Karnataka, MP, Maharashtra and UP.

In addition to the locational diversity, the most significant attribute of this portfolio is that 98% of the capacity is contracted with SECI and NTPC, the most creditworthy off-takers in the country, through 25 year fixed-tariff power purchase agreements.

The rating reflects strong revenue visibility and counterparty profile, co-obligor structure of SPVs providing diversity benefit, healthy financial risk profile, credible management and strong parentage. These projects have been operational for over 3 years and have been built using top tier equipment.

The portfolio is managed by a team of Vector Green Energy professionals which has undertaken several performance improvement initiatives last year under GIP’s oversight, which are already yielding results in terms of improved generation in FY21 despite the impact of Covid.

Vector Green Energy currently operates wind and solar power generation projects aggregating 652 MW located across 19 projects and 12 states in India and continues to look to expand its portfolio through incremental acquisitions.

Vector Green Energy has also been selectively participating in green-field project bids in the recent months. All the projects owned by Vector Green Energy are rated ‘A’ or above by diverse credit rating agencies without any external credit enhancements, which is quite distinct among the various renewable portfolios in the country.

Global Infrastructure Partners is one of the world’s largest infrastructure focused investor that manages over US $ 71 Bn (Rs 5.3 lakh crores) of assets including over 15GW of renewable projects.

Links:
https://www.crisil.com/mnt/winshare/Ratings/RatingList/RatingDocs/YarrowInfrastructurePrivateLimited_April 14, 2021_RR_266952.html
https://www.crisil.com/mnt/winshare/Ratings/RatingList/RatingDocs/SepsetConstructionsLimited_April 14, 2021_RR_266757.html
https://www.crisil.com/mnt/winshare/Ratings/RatingList/RatingDocs/RattanindiaSolar2PrivateLimited_April 14, 2021_RR_267100.html
https://www.crisil.com/mnt/winshare/Ratings/RatingList/RatingDocs/MalwaSolarPowerGenerationPrivateLimited_April 14, 2021_RR_266692.html
https://www.crisil.com/mnt/winshare/Ratings/RatingList/RatingDocs/PriapusInfrastructureLimited_April 14, 2021_RR_266663.html
https://www.crisil.com/mnt/winshare/Ratings/RatingList/RatingDocs/CitraRealEstateLimited_April 14, 2021_RR_266762.html