French energy group Engie has agreed to acquire Netherlands-based Sungevity International, the European unit of U.S. residential solar company Sungevity, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States in mid-March.
The financial terms of the transaction were not revealed. Engie said that Sungevity International is active in Belgium, Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom, and that its subsidiary Engie Electrabel had begun to cooperate with the company on the Belgian residential solar market last summer.
All 90 workers of Sungevity International will now be integrated into Engie’s staff, the company said in its press release. The unit of the U.S. company has been active in the European solar market since 2012.
In mid-April, a Delaware bankruptcy court approved the sale of Sungevity’s U.S. assets to Northern Pacific Group for $50 million. In its initial filings, Sungevity reported its assets and liabilities as being somewhere between $100 million to $500 million. The asset sale to Northern Pacific will allow the company to invest $20 million in the company immediately.
A top five residential solar installer as recently as last year, Sungevity’s fortunes started to dim rapidly in January, when a proposed “reverse-merger” with investment firm Easterly Acquisition Corp. collapsed, closing the door on the company’s hopes to access public capital for somewhere between $357 million and $607 million.
As for Engie, the energy giant has recently begun expanding its presence in the solar sector through several M&A transactions. Its latest operation was the acquisition of a 30% equity investment through capital increase in Chinese solar developer Unisun Energy.
Engie is also active in the solar business through its subsidiaries Compagnie du Vent, Solairedirect, Engie Green and La Compagnie Nationale du Rhône (CNR). The group aims to install approximately 2.2 GW in solar PV by 2021.
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