Goldman Sachs, Tennenbaum buy Conergy’s Asia business

Singapore-based Conergy Asia & ME — a unit of German EPC specialist Conergy — develops, builds, finances and manages commercial, industrial and utility-scale PV systems throughout the world. It did not disclose the terms of the acquisition. “(This) investment reinforces our competitive position as a premier solar downstream player in the Asia-Pacific market,” said Marc Lohoff, chief operating officer of Conergy.

Alexander Lenz, chief executive of the company, said Tennenbaum Capital Partners and Goldman Sachs BDC — a business development firm managed by Goldman Sachs Asset Management — will offer Conergy the financial muscle it needs to expand its operations in Japan, Southeast Asia and Australia. It has already installed nearly 2 GW of solar capacity throughout the world and has provided EPC and O&M services for roughly 500 MW of solar capacity.

Conergy has been particularly active in the Southeast Asian solar market. In late 2015, it established itself as an early mover in the nascent Indonesian PV sector, when it revealed plans to develop three 1 MW projects in East Nusa Tenggara province. It has also built several large-scale solar projects throughout the Philippines, including 201 MW of solar capacity it completed in early 2016 across eight locations on the islands of Luzon and Negros.

The company — which was rescued from insolvency in 2013 by US investor Kawa Capital Management — has also worked on a number of PV projects in the Japanese market. In May 2016, for example, it announced plans to team up with Thailand’s Global Power Synergy to build 25.88 MW of solar capacity in Japan’s Iwate prefecture.

In recent years, Goldman Sachs has emerged as an important source of finance for renewables projects throughout Asia. One of its investments — Indian power producer ReNew Power Ventures —revealed plans earlier this year to build 709 MW of solar and wind capacity across six states in India. Goldman’s Japanese unit also signed a $47m financing deal with Canadian Solar in April of this year to back the development of a 19 MW solar array in Gunma prefecture, Japan.