Private equity firm Actis Llp is close to buyinga majority stake in 500 megawatts of solar projects in India owned by Finland’s state-controlled power utility Fortum Oyj , two people aware of the development said. In addition to selling 80% stake in existing projects, the deal with an enterprise value of around €300 million also involves bringing these 500MW solar projects under a new platform, in which Actis will contribute equity to develop projects in India and overseas totalling around 2.5 gigawatts. Sanjay Aggarwal, MD of Fortum India Pvt. “The proposed deal is for Actis acquiring 80% stake in these operational 500MW of solar projects, with the 20% to be retained by Fortum," said one of the two people cited above, requesting anonymity. As part of this playbook, Fortum had in June 2018 agreed to sell a 54% stake in 185MW solar projects in India to UK Climate Investments (40%) and Elite Alfred Berg (14%).

Source: Mint May 17, 2021 20:15 UTC