India is home to 22 out of 30 most polluted cities in the world. It also hosts one of the world’s largest carbon credit developers. EKI Energy Services, run by 37-year-old Manish Dabkara, was a little-known entity till its listing on BSE on April 7, 2021, with a market cap of ₹96.23 crore. Since then, the market cap has crossed ₹5,000 crore as investors take note of scorching growth at the company.
EKI’s sustainability services include end-to-end solutions in training, consulting, energy conservation, carbon credit trading, clean development mechanism and carbon footprint management. It serves over 2,500 corporate customers, mostly renewable energy companies. Around 70% of its projects are from India. The rest are spread over 40-45 countries, mainly developing nations. “We are the largest carbon consultancy in developing world by the size of our team and range of services and expertise. Globally, we should rank among top five carbon credit companies,” says Dabkara.
EKI Energy has also floated a joint venture with oil major Royal Dutch Shell, which may invest billions of dollars to create 120 million carbon credits annually by 2030. Though EKI Energy has 51% stake, Shell will make 93% investments in nature-based carbon solutions like mangrove protection, organic farming and forestation. With a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and M.Tech in energy and environment management, Dabkara had started his career as a certified energy auditor with energy auditing firm SGS. In 2008, he launched a carbon credit consultancy named EnKing International, from Indore. For the next seven years, EnKing helped many Indian and overseas companies enrol for carbon credits, but that did not bring much revenue. Reasons were low awareness about carbon credit market, falling carbon credit prices and operational issues in carbon trading mechanism. By 2013, EnKing could do only about 50 greenhouse gas projects, and after two years won the first government tender for over ₹1 crore. “We remained a consultancy for carbon credits till FY2016 and realised that customers also needed a way to sell them. So, we got into carbon trading,” he says. In 2019, the company entered South East Asian markets and in 2020 alone traded over 40 million credits for over ₹100 crore. In last two years, EnKing International, rechristened EKI Energy Services, has traded over 150 million carbon credits, says Dabkara.
The 12-year-old company plans to use IPO proceeds for expanding climate management solutions in India and abroad. It had fixed ₹100-102 price band for the IPO to raise ₹18.60 crore. Its share price touched a high of ₹12,599 on January 22 and market capitalisation rose to ₹8,661.20 crore.Manish Dabkara and family own nearly 74% stake in the company.
Revenues were ₹7.01 crore in FY2018, ₹19.78 crore in FY2019, ₹65.98 crore in FY 2020 and ₹191.01 crore in FY2021. In first nine months of FY2022, they soared to ₹1,325.70 crore with net profit after tax of ₹278.20crore. “We are targeting approximately ₹1,800 crore revenue this financial year and expecting 50-100% growth in coming years,” says Dabkara. At present, the 180-member team is working from home (Some are working from an office in Turkey and in some other countries).Within one-two quarters, it plans to open offices in Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi. Another office is being set up in Dubai.
“The current carbon credit market is $1-2 billion, anticipated to grow $2 billion every year,” says Manish. That augurs well for his company. — P.B. Jayakumar