ReNew Energy Global Plc (NASDAQ:RNW) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Those, of course, will have to solve as and when they come up. But our expectation is that basis — all the work that we’ve done so far and the work that we continue to do at sites and including land acquisition and so on, that we will be able to commission the vast majority of the 13.4 gigawatts by the end of next financial year. So we are on track for getting that done. Kedar, if you want to just talk about the financing piece as well.

Kedar Upadhye: Yes. Sure, Sumant, sure. Yes. So I think financing is the access and affordability of capital is quite smooth these days. We have taken a target to churn the debt portfolio more in favor of Indian rupees. And some time back, we were almost 2/3 in dollar terms, and now we are almost half. So half of the portfolio is in Indian rupees and half is in dollars. Most of the term sheets that we’re getting for refinancing are in the range of 8.5 to 9 on rupee basis, and that’s really helping us to build natural hedge. Domestic access to capital, as we said, have improved. There are a couple of government-backed institutions, which are coming forward to lend to companies like us that is also helping. So all in all, good on financing.

Sumant Sinha: And the — yes, go ahead. Sorry.

Operator: The next question will come from Nikhil Nigania with Bernstein.

Nikhil Nigania: My first question is on hedging packages. If you could give some clarity on the mix of swaps versus options in terms of the dollar debt exposure. Is it for the entire duration of the debt? And also if it’s an option to what exchange rate is ahead there?

Sumant Sinha: Yes. So I think we use a mix of — yes, Nikhil, we use a mix of instruments. And in our view, when we back tested the effectiveness of hedging practices, that was proven to be quite appropriate for us. Once in a while, if the depreciation of the rupee in a particular quarter, we have to take an accounting charge, which is noncash. But from a commercial logic, the mix of plain forwards and add the money forwards and cross currency swaps is proven to be useful for us. I can give you offline in terms of the kind of rates that we have been able to lock in, but almost half of the hedges are in terms of plain forwards where we lock in the current rate with a premium on a year-on-year basis. And balance is spread into ATMF options, and as I said, some of these are at 90 or between 90 to 95.

Nikhil Nigania: Understood. The second question was regarding the round-the-clock project, which is under construction. There, there was some update that the borrowed debt has been locked. So if you could give us some sense of what was the borrowing cost at does the IRR guidance still hold for that project?

Kedar Upadhye: Yes, the IRR guidance still holds for that. That was a large loan, almost $1 billion, and we had a consortium among more than 10 banks. And that was the USD SOFR-linked loan approximately around 9% or so, Nikhil. And we are still quite in the range of IRRs that we target towards — for these kind of projects.

Sumant Sinha: I should add, Kedar, that obviously, with the farmdown to Mitsui, the IRR has actually become even sort of a lot better.

Nikhil Nigania: Understood. Just one follow-up question on that. The 9% is dollar interest rate, right?

Kedar Upadhye: Dollar and SOFR plus spread plus the hedging cost. So 9% is all-in fully loaded cost of…

Nikhil Nigania: Got it. Helpful. Yes, and then my last question is regarding storage opportunity. So many competitors have been exploring pump storage opportunities. So I just wanted to understand ReNew’s views and if any plans around that?