Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), a long-term institutional investor, has announced an increase in its stake in Azure Power Global Ltd (Azure Power). Azure Power is a leading renewable energy project developer and is one of the largest independent solar power producers with a presence in 23 Indian states.

CDPQ’s stake has now increased to 40 percent through ₹7.32 billion ($0.1 billion) contribution to the company’s recent capital raising. With this new investment, CDPQ’s total investment now stands at ₹17.6 billion ($0.24 billion).

CDPQ has actively participated in many solar energy related investment in the last two years. It invested CA$50.4 million (~$38.29 million) in a leading U.S. residential solar company, Sunrun. The investor has also been planning to invest in the largest private multi-family residential rooftop solar project at New York City’s Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village.

Many professional investment companies are now looking to diversify their portfolios, and investment in renewable assets has proved attractive as the sector is rapidly expanding. Recently, Mercom reported that the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), a public pension fund, announced that it would foray issue green bonds. This would make CPPIB the first pension fund to issue green bonds.

Azure Power Global had recently offered 14,800,000 equity shares on the New York Stock exchange. Per the company, it has priced its underwritten public offering of 14,800,000 equity shares at a public offering price of $12.50 (~₹926.07) per equity share.

The company’s current shareholders, CDPQ Infrastructure Asia Pte Ltd., IFC GIF Investment Company I and International Finance Corporation, had indicated their intention to purchase up to approximately $100 million (~₹7.3 billion), $40 million (~₹2.95 billion), and $10 million (~₹73 million) of the equity shares in the offering at the public offering price.

Per Mercom’s India Solar Project Tracker, Azure Power has around 1 GW of large-scale solar projects in-operation and ~1.9 GW of solar projects are under the development pipeline.

Garima is a staff reporter with MercomIndia.com covering renewable energy news. Prior to Mercom, Garima worked as a journalist with The Times of India and The New Indian Express. She received her Master’s degree in Environmental Science from the University of Nottingham and PG Diploma degree in journalism from the Times School of Journalism.