ACME Solar secures Rs 1,100 crore refinancing from SBI; stock reacts

Shares of ACME Solar Holdings Ltd rose 2 per cent in Tuesday’s trade after the renewable energy player announced that it has secured a refinancing package worth Rs 1,100 crore from State Bank of India (SBI) for its 300 MW project in Rajasthan.

On Tuesday, shares of ACME Solar initially rose 2.5 per cent to touch a day’s high of Rs 305.50 on the BSE, compared with the previous close of Rs 298. However, the stock quickly gave up gains and was trading 1.12 per cent lower to Rs 294.65 at 9:36 am, valuing the company at Rs 17,853 crore. The scrip has gained nearly 21 per cent over the past three months.

In a stock exchange filing, the company said the funds have been raised for a tenure of nearly 17 years to refinance existing debt and reduce financing costs by around 100 basis points. “This refinancing has been secured from State Bank of India (SBI) for a tenure of approximately 17 years and is consistent with the company’s strategy to optimize financing costs across its portfolio and strengthen its credit profile through rating upgrades,” ACME Solar said.

The Rajasthan project, which has been operational for about six months, has been “consistently maintaining optimum CUF levels,” it said. The refinancing will also help ACME strengthen its financial position as it gears up for capacity expansion over the next few years.

With an operational capacity of 2,890 MW across solar, wind, storage, FDRE and hybrid solutions, ACME Solar has been working on improving project credit ratings by demonstrating financial discipline. “The reduced cost of debt enables ACME Solar to further strengthen its financial position as it pursues significant capacity growth over the next few years,” ACME Solar added

On the technical front, ACME Solar shares are placed above their 30-, 50-, 100-, 150- and 200-day simple moving averages (SMAs) but below 5-, 10- and 20-day SMAs.