Birla enters renewables top tier with $1.8 bn Sprng deal

Mumbai: Billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla has made his biggest-ever bet on India’s clean energy sector by acquiring Sprng Energy from Shell at an enterprise value of $1.8 billion. The deal will more than double the renewable energy capacity of Aditya Birla Group’s clean energy business, placing it among the country’s top renewable energy companies and paving the way for faster expansion.

Sprng has an operational capacity of 3.3 gigawatts (GW), while another capacity of 1.7 GW is under construction. In the statement made by Aditya Birla Group, it was stated that after the acquisition, the capacity of Aditya Birla Renewables Ltd (ABRL) will increase to approximately 9.3 GW.

This acquisition will make ABRL the country’s fifth largest renewable company with a capacity of 9.3 GW, after Adani Green Energy, ReNew Power, Tata Power and NTPC Green Energy.

The Aditya Birla company now aims to increase its capacity to 20 GW, comparable to the country’s largest renewable player, Adani Green Energy. Of course, Adani is also rapidly expanding its clean energy assets, locking the two billionaires in the race to expand on another front after cement, copper and aluminium.

According to Blackridge Research and Consulting, a Hyderabad-based consulting firm, Adani Green has an installed capacity of 19.3 GW. ReNew Power has 12.6 GW; Sterling and Wilson Renewable Energy 12. GW; Tata Power Renewable 11.6GW and NTPC Green Energy 10.07GW.

“Over a long period of time, the Aditya Birla Group has built businesses of global scale that have contributed to India’s long-term growth, be it construction materials, metals, financial services or retail,” said Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman of the Aditya Birla Group.

“We view India’s energy transition through the same lens. At its core, it is about strengthening our nation’s energy future, increasing industrial competitiveness and creating the foundations for sustainable economic growth,” he said.

This acquisition helps ABRL diversify from commercial and industrial (C&I) customers into the services market, which includes power supply to government power utilities.

“By integrating Sprng Energy’s high-quality utilities portfolio with our C&I capabilities, we significantly enhance both the strength and resilience of our combined platform. Additionally, Sprng Energy brings a high-quality asset base, creditworthy buyers and strong contractual cash flows,” said Aryaman Vikram Birla, director of Aditya Birla Group and Aditya Birla Renewables and son of Kumar Mangalam.

“Having almost already achieved our target of ~10 GWp, we are on track to double capacity over the next few years,” he said.

Deal details

This is the second time Spring Energy has changed hands. Shell acquired the independent energy producer from Actis for $1.55 billion in 2022; Its operational portfolio was approximately 2.1 GW, while another 0.8 GW was under development.

The asset was purchased by ABRL at a steep discount, according to Harshraj Aggarwal, vice-head of institutional equity research at Yes Securities. “By partnering with BlackRock (GIP) for smart financing, Birla has secured these assets at a high public market valuation discount, while completely protecting its corporate balance sheet from heavy debts,” he said.

“While Shell is exiting the project due to low infrastructure returns, Birla can greatly increase the profit margins of the project by directing green electricity directly to its own energy-intensive industrial plants such as UltraTech Cement and Hindalco,” he said.

The equity consideration that ABRL will pay to Shell will be determined after adjusting for debt and cash, among other things, the statement said.

The transaction will be financed through a mix of debt and equity infusion from Grasim and funds managed by Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), part of Blackrock, the world’s largest money manager.

GIP is a shareholder of ABRL. He agreed to invest as much. ₹3,000 crore enterprise value in ABRL in December 2025 ₹14,600 crore.

ABRL reported income from its operations ₹924 crore in FY26, an increase of 81% over the previous year. However, high depreciation and financing costs caused losses to increase. ₹382 crore ₹349 crore in FY25. The company’s debt has been completed ₹14,635 crore by the end of March 2026.