Emerald Sri Lanka Fund, a private equity fund that supports small and mid-sized businesses in Sri Lanka, has announced its divestment in Panasian Power PLC (PAP), one of Sri Lanka’s leading renewable energy solution providers and suppliers of clean energy to the national grid.
Emerald Sri Lanka Fund, along with other major shareholders, sold a 62% stake of PAP to RIL Property PLC (RIL), a Sri Lankan conglomerate, for a total sale value of Rs 1.7 billion.
NDB Investment Bank acted as the exclusive financial advisor to the consortium of divesting shareholders and carried out a competitive M&A process to select R I L Property PLC as the successful investor.
The exit comes on the heels of strong growth by Panasian Power in the last two years. Since Emerald Sri Lanka Fund’s investment in Panasian Power, the company doubled its energy generation capacity to 22 megawatts. The expansion was mainly led by solar projects. Despite COVID related disruptions to the Sri Lankan economy, Panasian Power recorded a 63% increase in net profit in the fiscal year ending March 2021.
NDB Capital Holdings CEO and Panasian Power PLC Director Senaka Kakiriwaragodage said, “PAP is at the forefront of generating affordable and sustainable energy for Sri Lanka. It has been an incredible journey working with the shareholders and management team towards achieving the company’s growth objectives.”
“On the back of its execution capabilities, Panasian Power has a strong project pipeline with plans to expand to over 30 megawatts within the next year and has already initiated expansion opportunities in overseas markets.”
The Emerald Sri Lanka Fund is the first institutional private equity fund dedicated to Sri Lanka. It was launched by NDB Zephyr Partners Limited (NDB Zephyr), to provide growth capital and management support to SMEs led by promising entrepreneurs. In July 2019, the Fund invested Rs 400 million in PAP.
Panasian Power PLC CEO and Executive Director, Pathmanatha Poddiwala, said, “The Emerald Sri Lanka Fund team has been a terrific partner as we’ve grown the business.
The Fund’s arrival was the key milestone in the company to achieve its strategic target on diversifying into rooftop and ground-mounted solar power which made Panasian Power the most competitive IPP as per recent solar PV tender.”
“Beyond the capital, the team’s local presence in Sri Lanka coupled with their global connections has been invaluable to us in terms of growing our pipeline and accelerating our international expansion. We appreciate their guidance to mark our presence in our first overseas hydro project in Zambia under the Get-Fit scheme and achieving success on unique concepts like solar with agriculture for the first time in the country.”
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