EverSource Capital makes debut investment in renewable energy firm Ayana Power

EverSource Capital, a joint venture between homegrown private equity fund Everstone Capital and global renewable firm Lightsource BP, along with the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund of India (NIIF), announced on Friday a partnership in Ayana Renewable Power (Ayana), a green energy platform founded by the CDC Group.

EverSource Capital, NIIF and CDC have collectively invested $330 million in Ayana, led by EverSource and NIIF.

This is EverSource Capital’s debut investment in Ayana. The fund focuses on green investments and manages the Green Growth Equity Fund (GGEF), which has NIIF and the UK government as anchor LPs.

“We believe that the Ayana team has a successful track record in the renewable sector. The firm will invest in greenfield and brownfield expansion in both the solar and wind space, and in a combination of storage facilities,” says Dhanpal Jhaveri, chief executive officer at EverSource Capital.
Ayana is currently constructing 500MW of solar-generation capacity.

“We will provide strategic and operational value-add to Ayana, and help build a high quality, rapidly scalable and utility-grade renewable energy business,” Jhaveri added.

Jhaveri has brought on board Satish Mandhana, who was earlier the head of investments at IDFC Private Equity, and the team has hired 15 people to oversee the fund’s investments.

EverSource Capital is looking to raise $700 million for its fund, of which it has raised $340 million and marked its first close in the last quarter.

“We will be investing in green transportation, waste to energy, resource conservation and energy-efficiency companies from this fund,” adds Jhaveri.

EverSource capital expects to undertake one more investment in the next quarter.

Renewable energy companies have struggled to raise capital over the past six months due to challenges faced by the sector, because of low tariffs and an inability of some large firms to hit capital markets to raise money.

“The new scaled renewables entities will be a major source of energy generation in the next few years, and most investors who have bet on this sector over the past three to five years have made significant returns,” says Jhaveri.