Swiss investment firm Partners Group has agreed to acquire a majority stake in Gurgaon-headquartered renewable energy company Sunsure Energy for $400 million (about ₹3,290 crore).
The investment in Sunsure Energy, which has historically built solar plants for commercial and industrial users, is to help transform the company into an independent power producer which will have 3 gigawatt of operational capacity and sell power directly to commercial and industrial customers.
“Sunsure is a transformational, next generation infrastructure investment opportunity in India’s growing renewable energy sector, which has been a thematic focus area at Partners Group for many years,” said Luv Parikh, managing director, private infrastructure Asia, Partners Group.
Parikh said the investment would support Sunsure Energy in executing its pipeline of renewable projects and assist the company in offering new services to commercial and industrial customers.
Sunsure Energy CEO Shashank Sharma said the company is focused on bridging the gap between the availability of solar and wind power and its production in India. “We believe Sunsure’s transition into an independent power producer is the best way to ensure more businesses benefit from low-cost solar and wind power in the future,” he said. He added Partners Group’s extensive experience in the renewable and decarbonisation sectors and its financial resources made it an ideal partner.
EY was the financial adviser to Sunsure Energy on the stake sale.
Sunsure Energy was founded in 2015 by Sharma, Shantanu Faugaat, Manish Mehta, Kartikeya N Sharma and Tarunveer Singh.
Partners Group manages $185 billion in private equity, private real estate, private debt and private infrastructure on behalf of its clients globally. In India, it is the co-owner of retail chain Vishal Megamart along with private equity firm Kedaara Partners. Its other investments include Ecomm Express and Avas Financiers.
Renewable energy investors have been active in India and have demonstrated an appetite to buy majority stakes in Indian renewable energy companies.
India has made a commitment to generate 500 gigawatt of power from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030 and reduce carbon emissions by one billion tonnes by the end of the decade at the COP26 conference held in Glasgow in November last year. It will aim to meet 50% of its energy requirements from renewables.
The ambitious targets have also spurred deal activity in the sector.
In November, KKR joined forces with Vedanta group and committed an investment of $400 million to a new renewable energy platform that will be called Serentica Renewables in which both will be co-investors.
The US private equity firm had also set up Virescent Infrastructure as a renewable energy platform in 2019 that is structured as an infrastructure investment trust.
KKR also invested $450 million in Hero Future Energies along with the Hero Group in September.
Similarly, global investor Actis has also been actively investing in the Indian renewable energy sector. It has set up and then successfully divested two large renewable energy platforms, Ostro Energy and Sprng Energy, over the past five years. Sprng Energy was purchased by energy giant Shell Plc for $1.55 billion.
It’s third Indian renewable energy platform BluPine Energy was incorporated in 2021 and is again building a portfolio of renewable energy assets.
The industry has evolved and includes a variety of renewable energy producers with shareholding structures that differ. These include Indian startups that have raised funding from financial investors who are either majority owners of the business or remain significant minority investors, foreign renewable energy companies that have set up operations in India and renewable power producers spun out of Indian corporate houses.