Greenko, ReNew Power eye SkyPower’ India projects

SKYPOWER HAS A PIPELINE OF OVER 25 GIGAWATTS (GW) WORLDWIDE. USBASED INVESTMENT FIRM CIM GROUP OWNS MAJORITY STAKE IN SKYPOWER

NEWDELHI: Canadian solar energy developer SkyPower is in separate talks with Hyderabad-based Greenko Group and Sumant Sinha led ReNew Power Ventures to sell stake in its Indian projects, said several people aware of the development.

Mint reported on October 25 about SkyPower Ltd—one of the world’s largest utility-scale solar project developers — hiring Yes Bank to run the sales process.

“Both Greenko Group and ReNew Power are interested in SkyPower’s India projects,” said a person aware of the development requesting anonymity.

Another person who also didn’t wish to be named confirmed the development.

Toronto-based SkyPower has built, assembled and acquired a pipeline of over 25 gigawatts (GW) worldwide, of which 9GW is in the form of bilateral agreements to be built in West Asia, Africa and South-East Asia over the next five years.

US-based real estate and infrastructure investment firm CIM Group owns the majority stake in SkyPower.

In an emailed response, a Yes Bank spokesperson said, “As a matter of policy, we do not comment on client/company specific information.” A ReNew Power spokesperson in an emailed response said, “We would not like to comment on market speculation.”

ReNew Powerhasbeen scouting to ramp up its portfolio before a proposed initial share sale. It has around 3.5 gigawatts (GW) of operational and underconstruction capacity from its own wind and solar projects. It has set a target of over 11GW of wind and solar power capacity over next five years.

Mint reported on November 7 about global private equity firm Actis LLP exploring the sale of Ostro Energy Pvt Ltd to ReNew Power Ventures.

Also, Greenko, backed by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC Holdings Pte. and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, is planning a $750 million equity investment for buying energy assets.

It currently has over 2.7 GW of operating capacity with plans to achieve 3GW capacity by December.The firm plans to reach 5GW capacity by 2019.

Shamini Selvaratnam, director, international and institutional relations at SkyPower, said in an emailed response, “SkyPower is a privately held company in a highly competitive industry and does not disclose or discuss project details beyond what is made publicly available. This has been the operating policy since the company’s founding.”

Queries emailed to a Greenko Group spokesperson remained unanswered.