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Greenko to pay $100 million to take over SunEdison’s assets here
Greenko Energy Holdings, which is set to buy SunEdison’s Indian assets, will pay a small premium of less than $100 million (Rs 670 crore) for them in an all cash deal, according to a source involved in the negotiations. This will include the assets held by Terraform Global, one of SunEdison’s publicly held subsidiaries – called an ‘yieldco’ – with which some of them are vested. Greenko will also take over the outstanding debt of both SunEdison and Terraform Global in India, issuing fresh bank guarantees of Rs 200-250 crore.
SunEdison, the world’s largest renewable energy company, has been looking to divest its global assets ever since it filed for bankruptcy protection in the US in April this year. It has hired Rothschild Inc to facilitate its divestment process. The company owns around 1400 MW of solar and wind projects in India across several states – about 400 MW operational and the rest under construction. The total outlay of these projects is estimated at around $1.2 billion. Some of the solar assets were acquired through extremely aggressive bidding at auctions, such as the 500 MW project in Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh, won in November last year, for which the company quoted a tariff of Rs 4.63 per kwH, a historic low at the time.
The divestment is complicated by the fact that, since the bankruptcy declaration, Terraform has sued SunEdison in a US court, charging that it diverted funds to pad its balance sheet while claiming they would be used to complete the Indian projects. It was not clear how this will affect Greenko’s acquisition.
Pashupathy Gopalan, MD, SunEdison Asia Pacific, and Greenko refused to comment in response to emails sent by ET.
Started by two Hyderabad-based entrepreneurs, Anil Kumar Chalamalasetty and Mahesh Kolli, Greenko currently owns around 1000 MW of renewable assets, primarily in wind. But it has been looking for a major foray into the solar business, and was also among the contenders for Welspun Energy’s renewable assets of around 1100 MW, though it was pipped to the post by Tata Power, which bagged them in a S1.4 billion deal in June this year.Greenko is backed by two global sovereign funds – GIC of Singapore, which holds majority stake, and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority which pumped $150 million into the company in June. Jalen Richard Authentic Jersey
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