Credit rating agency CRISIL Ratings has assigned ‘A-/Stable’ long-term and ‘A2+’ short-term ratings to the bank facilities of IPO-bound SAEL Industries.
SAEL has signed long-term PPAs with several state and central utilities for almost its entire portfolio. This minimises offtake risk as PPAs have been signed for an average of 25 years in the solar IPP space and 25 years in the WTE segment.
Furthermore, for about 70 percent of the operational capacity and over 80 percent of the under-construction capacity, the offtake agreements have been signed with counterparties such as Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) and Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam (GUVNL), which have a strong track record of timely payments.
SAEL’s credit risk profile will remain stable owing to the steady performance of its operational assets, scale-up of IPP capacity, backward integration into solar module manufacturing and moderate leverage levels, reasoned CRISIL.
SAEL is backed by marquee investors Norfund and DFC. The consolidated rating approach captures significant linkages across 30+ SPVs and subsidiaries in solar IPP, AgWtE, and manufacturing verticals.
SAEL Industries operates across Agri Waste-to-Energy (AgWtE), utility-scale solar IPPs, Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS), and solar PV module manufacturing. It maintains a solar IPP portfolio of 8.29 GWp (DC) (operational and pipeline), 3.63 GW solar module manufacturing capacity, 165 MW of AgWTE portfolio, and is developing an integrated 10 GW (5 GW solar cell + 5 GW solar module) facility in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh.
