BlackRock Invests in Aditya Birla Renewables

Mumbai, Dec 9 (PTI) Global investment firm BlackRock on Tuesday committed to invest up to Rs 3,000 crore for a minority stake in Aditya Birla group's renewable business arm.

The bet values Aditya Birla Renewables, a unit of group company Grasim, at Rs 14,600 crore, according to a statement.

Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), a part of BlackRock, has committed to invest Rs 2,000 crore, and the investment also comes with a greenshoe option to pump in another Rs 1,000 crore, the statement said.

Till now, ABR has grown organically, and has built a diversified portfolio across solar, hybrid, floating solar, round-the-clock renewable power of 4.3 GW across 10 states, it said.

"The scale of the renewables opportunity in India is extraordinary, driven both by the urgent imperative of decarbonisation, and the sheer arithmetic of demand. This business sits squarely at the intersection of national energy security and climate leadership, two defining priorities for the coming decades," Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla said.

He added that the company is aiming to more than double capacity to 10 GW in the coming years.

The group sees the renewables business emerging as a powerful growth engine, Birla said.

"GIP's experience in infrastructure across the globe, combined with Aditya Birla's technical, operational and industrial capabilities, aims to develop Aditya Birla Renewables into a leading renewable platform that can contribute to the Indian industry's decarbonization objective," the company's president and chief operating officer Raj Rao said.