How Suzlon Energy shrugged off the tough years to turn things around

For Suzlon Energy, FY25 marked a comeback from nowhere, given that the Pune-headquartered company was deep in the red even as recently as three years ago. However, in FY25 it saw a 214% jump in its profit after tax and revenues rose 66%.

It wasn’t rocket science. J.P. Chalasani, CEO of Suzlon Group, points out that the company’s mantra was a strong focus on profitable and sustained growth. “Our disciplined turnaround strategy was built on three pillars—financial prudence, operational excellence and future-ready growth,” he says.

How did Suzlon crack the code?

Suzlon’s turnaround was the product of strategies laid out over the years. Patience and perseverance helped the firm record its highest profit before tax in a decade, with an order book of 5.6 GW and a net cash position of Rs 1,943 crore to boot. Among the listed entities, Inox Wind, according to its investor presentation for FY25, had an order book of approximately 3.2 GW. The order book is generally considered the best parameter. “Suzlon has emerged stronger and future ready,” says Chalasani.

Let’s step back and consider those three pillars. The first part relates to strengthening the balance sheet, Chalasani explains, through aggressive debt reduction, improving cash flows and optimising costs. According to Chalasani, this “financial discipline” enabled Suzlon to eliminate legacy liabilities and enhance profitability without external capital dilution. Critically, it made the business more efficient.

“We could now bring down the breakeven point from 1,500 MW to just 600-700 MW and that meant we could now be profitable at much lower volumes,” he adds.

It was also time to look beyond turbines and just expand the portfolio. He explains that Suzlon was repositioned as a renewable energy solutions provider with end-to-end Made in India capabilities. “It allowed us to capture growing demand from the commercial and industrial and public sector undertakings segments. That forms 80% of our order book.”

It is constantly reorienting the business. Chalasani says every facet was reimagined, be it customer, leadership, market or product. “Our S144 turbine platform (which accounts for 90% of the order book) and our expanded operations and maintenance services (OMS) portfolio became central to this reinvention,” he explains. Once it recognised OMS as a growth driver, Suzlon moved decisively to make the strategic acquisition of Renom Energy Services by picking up a 76% stake for Rs 660 crore.

“Suzlon’s debt reduction has been particularly noteworthy. From a peak of over Rs 12,000 crore in FY20, it was brought down to Rs 300 crore by FY25, through multiple debt restructuring initiatives and capital infusions via QIPs and rights issues,” says Divyam Mour, research analyst at Samco Securities.

The result was reduced interest costs and higher net profit. “Strategically, Suzlon exited its non-core solar business, allowing it greater focus on the core wind energy operations where it possesses deep domain expertise,” he adds.

Today, Suzlon’s business model is built on what Chalasani calls a lifecycle partnership model. This combines wind turbine installations with 25-year OMS contracts. It’s also a good time to be in renewable energy, with the Indian government setting a 100 GW wind capacity target by 2030—the non-fossil energy goal is 500 GW. “We have achieved 50 GW. The next 50 GW is critical not just for adding capacity but for shaping how India transitions to clean energy in a way that is sustainable, grid-stable and affordable for both businesses and consumers,” says Chalasani.

Chalasani is optimistic on growing demand from PSUs and independent power producers, many of whom already work with Suzlon.

@krishnagopalan