3 weeks ago

From textile mill to India's biggest wind energy company

From textile mill to India's biggest wind energy company
How a textile mill owner bought 2 wind turbines and built India’s biggest wind energy company · financialexpress.com

There once was a man in India named Tulsi Tanti who had a factory that made cloth.

The electricity in his area kept going out, so he bought two windmills to make power for his factory.

He soon found that making electricity from wind was a better business than making cloth.

So in 1995, he started a company called Suzlon Energy that makes big wind turbines.

The company grew and grew, buying companies in Europe and becoming one of the biggest wind power companies in the world.

But then Suzlon borrowed too much money and got into big trouble, and banks had to help fix it.

Tulsi Tanti passed away in 2022, and his brothers took over the company.

Today, Suzlon is out of debt and makes about a third of all the wind power in India.

People remember Tulsi Tanti as the 'Wind Man of India.'

Key facts

Founder
Tulsi Tanti (born February 2, 1958, in Rajkot, Gujarat)
Founded
1995
Seed capital
$600,000, raised primarily from selling family property
IPO
Listed October 9, 2005; oversubscribed over 15 times
Key acquisition
87% stake in REpower Systems for roughly $1.8 billion (2007)
Debt restructured
About Rs 9,500 crore in March 2013 by 19 banks led by State Bank of India
SEBI penalty
Rs 28.95 crore for accounting irregularities
India wind market share
About 32%

Quotes

Tulsi Tanti

Suzlon Energy chairman and founder

“We will be the fastest company to come out of CDR.”
financialexpress.com
“the most turbulent times that we have experienced”
financialexpress.com

Sources

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