MUMBAI, Oct 28, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - India's top solar module producer Waaree
Energies shone on its market debut Monday after raising $514 million, as
traders bet on increased global demand for clean energy components.

A booming stock market in the world's fifth-largest economy has stoked an
initial public offering frenzy over the last two years, with start-ups and
companies scooping up billions of dollars from domestic and foreign
investors.

The IPO had valued Waaree -- which had an aggregate installed capacity of 12
GW as of June 2024, the largest among Indian solar module makers -- at $5
billion at the upper end of the issue's price range.

Shares of the panel maker however jumped in early trade to 2,624.40 rupees
($31.20), up 74.6 percent from their issue price of 1,503 rupees, before
giving up some gains to trade at 2,401.65 rupees.

A "sustainable future is not just a goal, but it is today's necessity," said
Waaree chairman Hitesh Doshi at the listing ceremony in India's financial
capital Mumbai.

The company, whose shares have attracted investments from Morgan Stanley and
Goldman Sachs, has benefited from coal-dependent India's decision to rapidly
expand non-fossil fuel energy capacity.

While a boom in Chinese production has partly caused a glut in the global
supply of solar panels, Waaree's fortunes have surged as countries like the
United States look to reduce their dependence on supplies from Beijing.

Indian manufacturers exported $1.96 billion worth of solar modules and cells
in the 2024 fiscal year, according to estimates by ratings agency CRISIL, a
jump from the $1.03 billion they exported the year before.

Regulatory filings by Waaree note it has seen a "substantial increase" in
exports due to tariffs imposed by President Joe Biden's administration on
imports of solar modules from China.

In December 2023, the company announced that it would invest up to $1 billion
to build a factory in Texas, tapping into soaring US demand for solar energy.