Energetica India Magazine - September 2022

energetica INDIA- September_2022 39 INTERVIEW strategies to become a 1.2 GW capacity player. The global solar PV panel market size was valued at $180.4 billion in 2020, and is expected to reach $641.1 billion by 2030, registering a CAGR of 11.9% from 2021 to 2030. India is expected to grow at a much higher rate of over 30% during this period. The country is targeting about 450 GW of installed renewable energy capacity by 2030 and about 280 GW (over 60%) is expected from solar. Solar power in - stalled capacity has increased by more than 18 times, from 2.63 GW in March 2014 to 49.3 GW at the end of 2021. In FY22, till December 2021, India has added 7.4GW of solar power capacity, up 335% from 1.73 GW in the previous year. This indicates how fast the solar power capacity is increasing. India’s solar module production capac - ity will almost double to 36GW in two years, from 18GW as of December 2021. Currently, we are at 200 MW, by FY23 we would be 700 MW and by the end of FY24 our capacity would be 1.2 GW. It means we are increasing our market share from a meagre 1% to 3% with an upward bias in the next 2 years. Q What is your expected valuation of this IPO? Vikas Jain: As far as valuation goes, it is for the market to decide. However, con - sidering our strong financial record for the past few years which is growing at a steady rate, we expect a good valuation which is about 3x-4x of our IPO size. Again, I have a reason to claim this: 1) Our financial track record. 2) Our strong client base - our top 5 cli - ents contribute about 65% of our reve - nues. 3) Strong client relationship – OEMs contribute over 55% of our revenues. 4) Quality of our product. 5) The wide scope for contract manufac - turing. 6) The last and most important - the growth perspective of our industry, as explained earlier, is backed by various incentives and thrust of the Indian gov - ernment on the solar power segment. Q What do you want to say to the fu- ture investors of your company? Vikas Jain: We are grateful to our in - vestors and confident that our investors would be beneficial by being a part of an emerging sector. As I mentioned, this in - dustry is growing at a much faster pace and will attract impressive valuation as far as the equity market is concerned. In my opinion, the solar panel and mod - ules industry is an emerging industry and can mirror the growth trajectory of the telecommunication industry, which has seen robust growth from its emer - gence in 1995 till date. Q What is your company’s market USP, as compared to close peers? Vikas Jain: The first and foremost is the quality of our solar panels. Our so - lar panel has a guarantee of 25 years. Additionally, we have a wide product portfolio from 40Wp to 545Wp. We are competent in supplying any order at any point of time due to raw material inven - tory maintained by us. Our products are already well accepted in the market and our team has a strong market presence and is well poised to tap the robust de - mand in the coming years. Q How do you see competition in the market? Vikas Jain: There are a few big players who are in the business of power gener - ation and manufacturing solar panels. The industry also has a presence of a few medium-level manufacturers and many small-time players. Healthy competi - tion is good for the industry and we are sitting in an advantageous position hav - ing earned a good name in the market by virtue of offering quality products at a competitive price. Further as discussed above the country’s aim is to achieve 280 GWof solar capaci - ty by 2030. Our current installed capaci - ty stands at approx 58 GWwhich means we need to install about 27+GW of solar capacity every year to land up at 280 GW by 2030. Hence, I can see enough space for every manufacturer to cater to this demand. Further, as far as my knowledge goes, we would be the only listed entity man - ufacturing solar panels post our listing on BSE SME. We are growing at a much higher rate and will have a first mover advantage in the listed space. Q How do you see the government’s efforts on restricting imported solar panels from China or Taiwan? Vikas Jain: It is true that most of the solar panels and solar cells are imported from these countries. But with govern - ment support and its niche initiative of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’, things are chang - ing drastically. Many domestic compa - nies are given incentives to produce so - lar panels in our Country. In the Union Budget 2022-23, the government allo - cated Rs. 19,500 crore (US$ 2.57 billion) for a PLI scheme to boost the manufac - turing of high-efficiency solar modules. Further, MNRE has approved the list of models and manufacturers (ALMM) which are eligible for use in government and government-assisted projects or government schemes widening the scope for domestic products. Our modules are manufactured under stringent quality standards and thus are approved under BIS, ALMM & other quality standards. To decrease reliance on imports and to give a fillip to the domestic industry, the government of India imposed a basic customs duty of 40% on solar panels and 25% on solar cells on imports w.e.f. April 01, 2022, which makes solar panels manufactured in India much cheaper as compared to imported materials. Q What is your company’s growth per- spective in the next five years? Vikas Jain: I am very confident about our company’s growth perspective as explained earlier. We would grow in tan - dem with the industry, maybe at a much higher rate.