Three years after it sold Sprng to Shell, Actis wants to buy it back

If Actis does indeed acquire Sprng, the deal would come full circle for the company, which sold Sprng Energy to Shell three years ago for an enterprise value of $1.55 billion. Sprng Energy has 2.3 gigawatts (GW) of operational renewable energy projects and 5GW on the way.

Other potential bidders interested in the yet-to-be-initiated sale process, which is being led by Barclays and spoke on condition of anonymity, include Blackstone, the world’s largest alternative asset manager, and Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management Inc. It is located.

“Actis is interested in buying back the Spring Energy group from Shell Plc,” one of the two people said.

Shell recently sold its 49% stake in green energy company Cleantech Solar to Singapore’s Keppel Ltd in a deal valued at around $200 million in equity. Mint It was previously reported. Keppel, which already owns the remaining 51% stake in the rooftop solar platform, then plans to sell Cleantech Solar for approximately $400 million.

A Shell spokesperson said in an emailed response: “We continually review our portfolio to deliver on our strategy. We will not comment on market speculation. Sprng remains focused on safe and reliable operations.” Spokespeople for Barclays, Blackstone and Brookfield Asset Management Inc. declined to comment.

An Actis spokesperson said in an emailed response: “As a company, we cannot comment on deal speculation.”

The massive scale of India’s green energy space has attracted the attention of both Indian and global investors. India has around 197 GW of installed renewable energy capacity and plans to add another 50 GW annually to reach 500 GW of renewable capacity by 2030. The plan is to add 1,800 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2047 and 5,000 GW by 2070.

Analysts say inorganic growth is the playbook in the energy field. According to KPMG, the top operational priority for organizations pursuing greater energy security, building digital infrastructure and scaling renewables is to achieve growth over the next three years.

“Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) remain on the agenda, particularly for renewables and digital assets, indicating growing appetite for inorganic growth,” the KPMG 2025 Global Energy, Natural Resources and Chemicals CEO Outlook report published on Tuesday said. The statement was included.

Actis is an active investor in India’s green energy space. Blupine Energy becomes the third clean energy company in the country, following the sale of Ostro Energy to ReNew Power Ventures in 2018 for an enterprise value of $1.5 billion and the Sprng Energy deal. It is also exploring the sale of Blupine Energy, where it has invested $800 million to develop a 4GW renewable energy portfolio. Actis previously acquired Macquarie Asset Management’s green energy platform Stride Climate Investments with a 371 MW portfolio in a deal with an enterprise value of $325 million.

While Brookfield is an investor in India’s green energy space, Blackstone is also examining the field and plans to establish a new renewable energy platform in India. Blackstone’s investments in real estate, healthcare, data centers, technology and private equity in India total $50 billion. It was earlier interested in acquiring the Indian operations of multinational renewable energy developer Zelestra through a sale transaction ticker called Project Orange, led by JP Morgan, which had an equity and enterprise value of $184 million and $421 million, respectively. European alternative asset manager EQT later withdrew the sale plan and instead transferred it to its Asia Pacific infrastructure team headed by Hong Kong-based partner Ken Wong, Mint previously reported.

Brookfield, which has $1 trillion in assets under management worldwide, invested $30 billion in India. Brookfield Global Transition Fund (BGTF) has committed to invest $1 billion in Avaada Ventures Pvt. Separately, Brookfield Renewable acquired a majority stake in rooftop solar manufacturer CleanMax Enviro Energy Solutions Pvt. Ltd. for 360 million dollars. Brookfield Asset Management also signed an agreement with Mukesh Ambani encouraging Reliance Industries Ltd to explore opportunities to produce renewable energy and decarbonization equipment in Australia. Earlier this year, Brookfield Asset Management sold its 1.6 GW portfolio to Malaysia’s state-run Petronas unit Gentari Sdn Bhd. The renewable energy and transition portfolio in India consists of over 45 GW of wind and solar assets under cross-platform operation, construction and/or development.

The interest in the sprng transaction comes in the backdrop of the Union power ministry directing state-run suppliers – Solar Energy Corp. of India (SECI), NTPC Ltd, NHPC Ltd and SJVN Ltd – to cancel contracts awarded where signing power purchase agreements (PPAs) and power supply agreements (PSAs) are not possible by the end of this month, as reported by Mint on Tuesday. Considering that an intermediary supplier such as these state-run firms signs PPAs with the project developer after signing back-to-back PSAs with power distribution companies (discoms), the inordinate delay in finalizing the PSAs has also delayed the signing of PPAs. This development is important considering that there are no PPAs and PSAs in the 43.94 GW capacity.

Some transactions reported by Mint Terra Clean Ltd, the renewable energy subsidiary of Indian Oil Corp. (IOC), plans to acquire 50% stake in renewable energy company Fourth Partner Energy Pvt. Ltd (FPEL) with an equity value of approximately $400 million. Additionally, Morgan Stanley and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. (MUFG) in October initiated the sale of Vena Energy India, the Indian green energy platform of Vena Global Group Pte Ltd, owned by Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), in a deal with an enterprise value of approximately $1 billion. Additionally, Sembcorp Industries Ltd, Torrent Power Ltd, INOXGFL Group’s Inox Green Energy Services Ltd and General Atlantic’s Actis Llp are among half a dozen bidders shortlisted for due diligence to acquire Macquarie Asset Management Green Investment Group (GIG) platform Vibrant Energy under the transaction code Project Notos, with an enterprise value of about $600 million.

Additionally, initial public offerings (IPOs) are also becoming popular; the latest is Avaada Electro, the solar module and cell manufacturing arm of Avaada Group and backed by Thailand’s PTT Group and Brookfield. ₹10,000 crore. This comes at a time when several green energy platforms have come up with IPOs, including the green energy arm of state-run NTPC Ltd, NTPC Green Energy Ltd, Waaree Energies, Vikram Solar, ACME Solar and Premier Energies. During; Inox Clean Energy, CleanMax and Juniper Energy have already filed to go public; Hero Future Energies and SAEL are among the renewable players considering raising capital through IPOs.