New Delhi-based Azure raised $136.4m through the IPO and a private transaction, before commissions and expenses, with the money to be used as growth capital, including for project development.
The shares were sold publicly for $18 apiece under the ticker symbol AZRE, lower than the $21-$23 IPO price Azure suggested in regulatory paperwork filed in September.
The shares fell by nearly 19% on their first day of trading Tuesday, to $14.60, leaving Azure with a market capitalisation of around $345m.
Azure’s rough start reflects the cool attitude the US public-equity markets continue taking towards many renewables companies, with IPOs and share issues having been a fairly rare occurrence of late.
Still, Azure’s IPO is one of the most important in the renewables sector of 2016, offering investors the opportunity to get a piece of the booming Indian solar market.
Azure built India’s first utility-scale PV plant in 2009, expects to own 520MW of operating PV capacity in the country by the end of this year, and is targeting 5GW of capacity in operation or with a PPA by the end of 2020.
