Mumbai: Moser Baer India’s wholly owned photovoltaic (PV) subsidiary has entered into definitive agreements to raise Rs 4.11 billion (Rs 411 crores) from a consortium of global investors, including Nomura, CDC Group, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, IDFC PE and IDFC.

This is to fund the subsidiary’s growth plans. The transaction values Moser Baer’s PV business at Rs 63.5 billion. This round of fund raising follows the company’s previous private equity funding transaction of Rs 4 billion (Rs 400 crores) in November 2007. In all, the wholly owned subsidiary would have raised Rs 8.11 billion (Rs 811 crores) for private funding.

Moser Baer plans to use the capital infusion to the capacity expansion of its high efficiency crystalline silicon and thin film solar verticals. The company currently has an annual capacity of 120MW, including 40MW of amorphous silicon Gen 8.5 thin film modules.

This investment is intended to fund the expansion of the crystalline silicon cell manufacturing to 180MW and amorphous silicon thin film to 120MW.

Moser Baer India executive director Ratul Puri said, "We are pleased with the rapid strides that our PV business is making, as we work towards enabling solar power as a competitive source of energy. This funding from global investors will provide great impetus to the expansion plans we have for the PV business. It also allows Moser Baer to develop a significant global multi-technology platform and consolidate our leadership position on the global photovoltaic business."

IDFC Private Equity CEO and president Luis Miranda added, "We have been an investor in Moser Baer’s PV business since October 2007. This second round of investment in the business by IDFC PE reaffirms our view that Moser Baer’s photovoltaic business is very well positioned to emerge as one of the leading companies in the global photovoltaic space."

Nomura head of Asia merchant banking division Yoshiki Hashimota said, "We believe Moser Baer has significant potential to become a global leader in the solar PV space with a great management team and with more than a decade of technology manufacturing experience. Our investment will help Moser Baer rapidly scale up and reach grid parity economics in the near future."