The board of directors of Suzlon Energy Limited, a leading renewable energy company that has been in a financial rut over the past year, has put in place a plan for restructuring its debt.

According to the company’s filing at the National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE), the company plans to issue one billion equity shares at ₹2 (~$0.03) each and up to 410,000 0.1% secured optionally-convertible debentures worth ₹100,000 (~$1,394.62) each. The company also plans to issue 500 million warrants of ₹1 (~$0.01) each. Considering the company’s proposal, the board has approved the issuance of equity shares or equity-linked instruments to the extent of ₹10 billion (~$138 million).

The company had also approved the divestment or dilution of the company’s investments, assets, and undertakings if required. According to the NSE filing, the board has also approved the issuance of equity shares and concessional custom duties on a preferential basis to promoters or entities up to ₹4 billion (~$55.78 million).

Suzlon also announced the appointment of Sameer Shah as the additional director in the capacity for a term of five years.

In January 2020, Mercom reported that Suzlon disclosed an outstanding debt of ₹127.85 billion (~$1.8 billion), according to the company’s Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) filing. The company had filed the disclosure of defaults on payment of interest, repayment of principal amount on loans from banks and financial institutions in the filing.

The loans were given by a consortium of 18 banks led by the State Bank of India (SBI) along with the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA). The company took secured the loans for its subsidiaries, namely, Suzlon Global Services Limited, Suzlon Gujarat Wind Park Limited, Suzlon Generators Limited, and Suzlon Power Infrastructure Limited.

The revenue of the company for Q1 FY20 came to ₹8.33 billion (~$117 million). According to the company’s statement, it continued to witness a sectoral slowdown, owing to the prolonged industry transition to reverse auctions and policy uncertainty in a few states.

In April 2019, Suzlon had announced that it would sell two of its solar subsidiaries to Ostro Energy, a wholly-owned subsidiary of independent power producer, ReNew Power. The two subsidiaries are Shreyas Solarfarms Limited (Shreyas solar) and Aalok solar farms Limited (Aalok Solar).

Image credit: Suzlon