London-headquartered private equity investor Actis is evaluating an offer to acquire more than 1 GW of renewable power assets from Indian clean energy developer ReNew, three sources familiar told Infralogic.
NASDAQ-listed ReNew is looking to sell a part of its operational wind and solar power portfolio across India with a combined capacity of 1.1 GW, the sources said, adding that the assets comprise 70% wind power projects, while the remainder are solar developments.
The seller expects the wind and solar projects to be valued at USD 1bn, two of the sources said, but a buyer is expected to offer much lower for the assets, one of them noted, without disclosing the final range.
A ReNew spokesperson declined to comment for the article, while Actis did not respond to a request for comment.
ReNew started looking to sell the wind-solar portfolio early this year and was in talks with companies including Torrent Power for the sale, according to local media reports. The sale is part of a capital recycling strategy by the company, the reports noted.
The green energy company is currently also seeking to sell substantial equity in its solar power business focused on commercial and industrial (C&I) customers.
ReNew's clean energy portfolio, including utility-scale wind, solar and hydropower projects, had a capacity of more than 13 GW as of the end of September last year. ReNew is also engaged in businesses such as green hydrogen, value-added energy offerings through digitalisation, storage and the carbon markets. It is currently in the midst of planning green hydrogen projects in India and Egypt, as well as other countries.
It was set up in 2011 by Managing Director and Chairman Sumant Sinha and is backed by investors including Goldman Sachs, Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Japan's JERA. The company listed on the Nasdaq in August 2021.
Over the past one year, ReNew's share price has tanked from USD 8.22 at the end of March 2022, to a close at USD 5.50 yesterday.
Earlier this month, CPPIB invested another USD 268m to gain a majority shareholding in ReNew. CPPIB purchased the additional shares in ReNew Energy Global, the parent of ReNew, from Goldman Sachs via a secondary transaction that will see CPPIB's effective stake in the company increase to around 52% from 31.6%.
