India's IPO boom turns seven entrepreneurs into billionaires

Many are early movers in renewable energy sector; equity market also on a roll in 2024

A blockbuster year for initial public offerings (IPOs) in India catapulted seven entrepreneurs into the US dollar billionaires league, many of them early movers in the country's booming renewable energy sector.

Mr Chiranjeev Singh Saluja of Premier Energies is among those who successfully rode the wave.

"My father was in the business of supplying hand pumps to rural villages," the 51-year-old said in an interview. "He saw that access to electricity was sparse in those areas, so he started Premier Solar in 1995."

Three decades on, the company rechristened Premier Energies is the country's second largest integrated solar module and solar cell manufacturer behind the Adani Group.

Investors bullish on the government's investments in solar energy have bid up Premier shares nearly threefold since their debut in September, valuing it at roughly US$7 billion (S$9.6 billion).

Mr Saluja is one of the four entrepreneurs in the renewable energy space whose personal fortunes have soared after their companies listed on the stock exchanges in 2024.