This aerial photo taken on October 15, 2024 shows solar panels in Punit Paranjaipe, Gujarat, India.
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Worley Energies, India’s largest solar module producer, shined in its market debut on Monday, raising $514 million as traders bet on rising global demand for clean energy components.
A booming stock market in the world’s fifth-largest economy has sparked an initial public offering (IPO) frenzy over the past two years, with startups and companies raking in billions of dollars from domestic and international investors.
The IPO valued Waaree, with a total installed capacity of 12 GW, the largest among Indian solar module manufacturers as of June 2024, at $5 billion, the upper end of its issue price range.
However, the panel maker’s shares surged 74.6% from its issue price of 1,503 rupees to 2,624.40 rupees ($31.20) in early trade before giving up some gains to trade at 2,401.65 rupees.
“A sustainable future is not just a goal, it is a necessity of today,” Waaree Chairman Hitesh Doshi said at the listing ceremony in India’s financial capital Mumbai.
The company’s stock has attracted investment from Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs and is benefiting from coal-dependent India’s decision to rapidly expand its non-fossil fuel energy capacity.
Worley’s fortune has soared as a boom in Chinese production partially causes a global oversupply of solar panels, while countries such as the U.S. seek to reduce their dependence on supplies from China. I am doing it.
Indian manufacturers exported $1.96 billion worth of solar modules and cells in fiscal 2024, up from $1.03 billion exported a year earlier, according to estimates by rating agency CRISIL.
Waaree’s regulatory filing said exports had “significantly increased” due to tariffs imposed by President Joe Biden’s administration on imports of solar modules from China.
In December 2023, the company announced it would invest up to $1 billion to build a factory in Texas to capture the surging demand for solar energy in the United States.
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