KKR’s Virescent buys India solar assets of Singapore’s Sindicatum
Global private equity giant KKR & Co has acquired the Indian solar portfolio of Singapore’s Sindicatum Renewable Energy Company Pte. Ltd, in its second takeover of renewable energy assets in the country.
KKR, through its Indian renewable energy platform Virescent Infrastructure, is buying Sindicatum’s solar plants with a total capacity of about 76 MWp in three states. It didn’t disclose any financial details.
Solar energy deals in India are typically struck around Rs 5 crore per megawatt. This means the deal value could be around an estimated Rs 380 crore, or roughly $50 million.
Virescent said Friday the acquisition is in line with its strategy to acquire operational renewable energy assets that have stable long-term cashflows with government counterparties across India.
The move comes a year after KKR bought five solar energy assets from Shapoorji Pallonji Group with a total capacity of 317 MW for Rs 1,554 crore in April last year. This also turns out to be around Rs 5 crore per MW.
In October last year, the PE giant housed the five assets into Mumbai-headquartered Virescent. At the time, it had also said that it had entered into definitive agreements to acquire other operating solar projects across three different states. However, it hadn’t revealed any details about these projects.
Sindicatum operates two solar plants in Gujarat with a capacity of 20 MW and 15 MW, one project in Rajasthan of 5.2 MW and a 35.2 MW plant in Uttar Pradesh.
The Rajasthan plant was commissioned in 2011 while the Gujarat assets started operations the following year. The Uttar Pradesh plant began generating electricity in 2016.
