ReNew Power to provide free Covid-19 vaccination to employees, their families

Clean energy firm ReNew Power has decided to provide Covid-19 vaccination free of cost to its 1,500 employees as well as their families.

Assuming a family of five, back-of-the-envelope calculations indicate that ReNew Power would provide vaccination to around 7,500 people across its 110 locations in India.

ReNew Power Chairman and Managing Director Sumant Sinha said that the company will bear the full cost of vaccination for its employees and their dependents.

He said ReNew has around 1,500 employees, a majority of whom work across its 110 locations across the country.

In an e-mail written to employees, Sinha said, "We want to ensure that all our employees are working in safe conditions, and getting vaccinated is a crucial safety measure in that regard." Earlier, in February, ReNew Power had entered into an agreement to merge with RMG Acquisition Corp II, a blank-cheque company or special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), for its listing on Nasdaq.

About listing the firm abroad, he said, "Global markets are deep, and there is a lot of interest in investing on the ESG (environment, social and governance) theme. By listing overseas, we have access to new funds from those investors also who otherwise would not have been able to invest in an Indian listing."

He futher said, "For us, it was fairly straightforward, as a company we had been thinking about getting listed in market where capital pool is deep."

Sinha added that therefore, while evaluating overseas listing, the company saw that the SPAC phenomenon has become fairly common and upon examination, it was found that it offered a fairly viable path forward to get the listing done. "It seemed just as credible and as straightforward as a direct listing and hence we chose this path."

He also said the company will get a net primary proceeds of around $610 million from the total of $1.2 billion that we will raise from this transaction. "A significant portion will be used for future growth. A portion will be used for debt reduction as well." About the long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs), he said the company has 25-year PPAs signed for all projects.

"At the first level, it gives comfort that your revenues are contracted. Over time, as we sign more PPAs with SECI (Solar Energy Corporaton of India) or other PSUs, that will also improve the payment profile at an aggregate level," Sinha added.

Sinha also said India's power market is currently the third largest in the world and growing rapidly. "The electricity demand by all yardstick will double in 10 years and within that demand, there is also a big shift that is happening to renewables in the country. Today, renewables are the cheapest source of electricity in India and, therefore, best placed to grow exponentially." He said the firm is looking at 5-6 times growth of installed capacity of renewables, and ReNew being market leader with a 10 per cent market share is well placed to benefit from the rising demand. "The opportunity in India is tremendous and exciting and our focus in the near term is on utilising the opportunities here."