ReNew Power agrees to merge with RMG II SPAC
ReNew Power, India’s biggest renewable power producer, has agreed to merge with blankcheck company RMG Acquisition Corp. II.
The deal will give Goldman Sachs Group Inc.-backed ReNew an enterprise value of $8 billion and will close in the second quarter, according to a statement published Wednesday.
An $855 million private placement to support the transaction is being raised from investors including serial dealmaker Chamath Palihapitiya, TT International Asset Management, a fund managed by BNP Paribas SA, funds and accounts managed by BlackRock Inc. and Sylebra Capital.
The merger will extend a wave of clean-tech SPAC deals in the US to include India’s growing renewables market. India’s electricity demand is surging as the country pushes to slash emissions and improve air quality.
RMG II was drawn to ReNew’s status within India’s fast-growing power market. “You combine that with the policy tailwind, you’ve got a tremendous story here,” said Bob Mancini, chief executive officer of RMG II, in an interview.
India’s electricity demand is projected to increase by almost 5% per year to 2040, making it one of the fastest growing markets in the world, the International Energy Agency said in a report earlier this month. For comparison, US consumption is expected to grow by roughly 0.5% per year through 2030, the IEA said in a report in October.
Solar and wind will account for more than three quarters of the India’s power capacity additions over the next two decades, according to the IEA. “We are fortunate that we operate in a market that is going through a very significant energy transition going from coal and more and more towards renewables,” said Sumant Sinha, chairman and managing director of ReNew.
ReNew’s plan to go public through a deal with RMG was reported earlier by the Indian newspaper Mint.
RMG, sponsored by Riverside Management Group, raised $345 million in its initial public offering including so-called greenshoe shares in December. It’s part of an unprecedented surge in listings by special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, that has continued this year. ReNew would receive about $610 million in net proceeds after using some of the money to pay down debt and repay existing investors who are selling portions of their stakes, according to the people. Other investors in the company include the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
India is aiming to use green sources for 40% of its energy needs by 2030, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said last week. ReNew now has more than five gigawatts of operational cleanpower capacity. A huge buildout of renewables as the nation targets 450 gigawatts of capacity over the next decade—up from about 91 gigawatts now—is a $20 billion a year investment opportunity, Modi said last year. By 2040, solar generation is expected to account for about the same share of India’s energy mix as coal, currently the nation’s dominant power source, according to the International Energy Agency.