Indian public sector firm NTPC's green energy arm files for $1.2 billion IPO

India's NTPC Green Energy filed draft papers for a 100 billion rupees ($1.19 billion) initial public offering on Wednesday, as it looks to cash in on the country's renewables expansion plans and a red-hot equities market.

The company, a unit of state-owned power producer NTPC, will only issue new shares, and existing shareholders will not sell any stake, the draft papers showed.

The IPO market in India is booming. So far this year, about 235 companies have gone public and raised more than $8.6 billion, which exceeds the total amount raised last year.

India's benchmark Nifty 50 index has hit record highs more than 50 times this year.

Large power producers in India are all betting big on renewables and making pledges to expand their green energy capacities, while the Indian government is aiming to add at least 500 GW of clean energy by 2030 to reduce carbon emissions.

"The IPO comes at a time when thermal power-heavy NTPC is looking for other energy avenues to diversify into and bolster revenues," Kranthi Bathini, director of equity strategy at WealthMills Securities said.

"Considering the fact that green energy will remain in focus in the near-future, investors would definitely want a slice of this pie," Bathini added.

Earlier this year, Reuters reported on NTPC's plans to take its green energy arm public in FY24-25.

NTPC Green Energy said on Wednesday it will use the proceeds from the fresh issue to repay loans worth 75 billion rupees taken by its unit NTPC Renewable Energy.

NTPC Green Energy's total borrowings stood at 152.77 billion rupees as of June-end.

The book running lead managers of the IPO are IDBI Capital Markets & Securities, HDFC Bank, IIFL Securities and Nuvama Wealth Management.