Greenko set to buy SunEdison’s India assets

Hyderabad-based renewable energy company is believed to have finalised the deal for $260 million

HYDERABAD-BASED renewable energy company Greenko Energy Holding (GEH) is believed to have finalised a deal to buy USbased SunEdison's assets in India for $260 million or over R1,700 crore, a source privy to the infor mation told FE.

Greenko has valued the assets of the company at $100 million while it will take over the liabilities worth nearly $160 million.

SunEdison's president for Asia-Pacific, Pashupathy Gopalan, said he was unable to comment on the development while calls to Greenko went unanswered.

With this deal, Greenko, which is an affiliate of the Singapore gover nment’s sovereign wealth fund GIC, will acquire commissioned solar power plants with 350 megawatt (MW) capacity and also nearly 950 MW under construction. Greenko recently raised $230 million in fresh funding from Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and the parent company.

SunEdison, which filed for bankruptcy in April, has found it difficult to secure buyers as its projects are poorly capitalised. As FE reported earlier, the renewable power firm has infused barely 5% or R100.5 crore of the required equity of R2,010 crore for all its power plants.

Greenko, which primarily owns wind assets worth 1,000 MW, would require to immediately infuse over R500 crore into the projects to avoid states revoking bank guarantees on these projects.

SunEdison, it may be recalled, filed for bankruptcy after an ambitious and highly-leveraged growth plan came a cropper. In its bankruptcy filing, the company said it had assets of $20.7 billion and liabilities of $16.1 billion as of September 30.

Experts believe that the valuation for SunEdison may be low on premium as a large chunk of SunEdison’s portfolio consists of projects won at very aggressive tariff sand likely to below on return.

For instance, SunEdison had bid the lowest ever solar tariff of R4.63/unit in November, last year, for a solar park in Andhra Pradesh to be developed by the state-run NTPC.

The company had earlier sold its much smaller rooftop solar power asset with a capacity of 7 MW to Amplus Solar, a Gurugram-based rooftop solar company, for nearly R60 crore.

SunEdison, which filed for bankruptcy in April, has found it difficult to secure buyers as its projects are poorly capitalised