Acquisition Activity In Indian Renewable Energy Market Heats Up
Leading renewable energy generation companies are aggressively looking to expand their portfolios through inorganic means as minor players look to exit power plants in the face of increasing competition and unviable growth prospects.
According to different media reports, renewable energy generators Mahindra Susten and government-owned power trading company PTC India are looking to sell their solar and wind energy assets, respectively. Mahindra Susten, a subsidiary of the Mahindra Group, is looking to sell off 160 megawatts of solar power capacity while PTC India is planning to sell up to 290 megawatts of wind energy capacity.
Mahindra Susten reports around 215 megawatts (DC) of utility-scale solar power capacity spread across the states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana on its websites. These could be the power plants that the company may be looking to sell off. The company has multiple interests, including power plant development, power generation, and offering EPC services. It seems that the company is looking to offload some of the projects and potentially looking to focus on the EPC services business at competition in the power project development business tightens due to the low tariff bids.
It would be clearly difficult for Mahindra Susten to compete with ‘pure’ project development companies like ReNew Power and Acme Solar. The company also owns 250-megawatt (AC) project in one of the largest multi-develop solar power parks in India at Rewa in the state of Madhya Pradesh.
Another major renewable energy deal brewing in India involves nearly 300 megawatts of wind energy assets of government-owned power sector company PTC India Limited. The company is the country’s largest power trading company and is possibly looking to exit this non-core segment of wind energy generation. The company has not been a participant in any of the wind energy auctions.
According to media reports, NTPC Limited — the largest power generation company in India — and ReNew Power Limited — the self-proclaimed largest private renewable energy generator in India — have shown in PTC’s wind energy assets. The deal could cost the buyer around Rs 2,000 crore (~US$290 million).
Both ReNew Power and NTPC are pure power generation companies and would be looking to expand their portfolios. The wind energy assets on offer by PTC India are of the feed-in tariff era when the revenue per unit energy generation was much higher compared to the tariffs now prevalent under the competitive auctions regime. While NTPC Limited has made no acquisitions in the renewable energy segment ReNew Power is virtually the king of renewable energy acquisitions in India. The company has acquired private wind energy generation companies like Ostro Energy and KCT Renewable Energy.
Source: cleantechnica
