Gautam Adani-led Adani Green Energy Ltd (AGEL) is looking to buy Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp.’s controlling stake in solar power producer SB Energy, after SoftBank’s earlier proposed deal with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) was called off, said two people aware of the development.

A due diligence process has been started by AGEL, with its personnel been given access to SB Energy’ data room.

SoftBank was earlier planning to sell its 80% stake in SB Energy, which has a 7.7 gigawatts (GW) solar power portfolio in India, for an estimated $525 million to CPPIB. The remaining stake is held by Bharti Enterprises Ltd. Bank of America and Barclays were handling the sale process.

Spokespersons for SoftBank Group, Bharti Enterprises, Bank of America, and Barclays Bank India declined comment.

Queries emailed to an Adani Group spokesperson on Saturday evening remained unanswered till press time.

With businesses spanning across energy, ports, airports, logistics, mining, resources, gas, defence and aerospace, Adani Group has been ramping up its green energy portfolio and has been on an acquisition spree. It recently bought Sterling & Wilson Private Ltd’s 75MW operating solar projects and Toronto-headquartered SkyPower Global’s 50MW solar project in Telangana. Adani Enterprises Ltd has also partnered EdgeConneX to develop 1GW of data centre capacity over the next decade, which will be powered by renewable energy.

France’s Total has invested $2.5 billion for acquiring a 50% stake in 2.35GW operating solar assets of AGEL and a 20% stake in AGEL. With 3.47GW operational capacity and 15.24GW portfolio, the Adani-Total JV plans to commission 25GW by 2025.

A CPPIB group spokesperson in an emailed response said, “We don’t have comment beyond our response provided on Thursday.”

Source: Mint

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