Actis buys chunk of SP Infra’s solar portfolio

Sprng Energy is the renewable energy platform of private equity firm Actis. With SP Infra’s assets, Actis has increased its operating capacity to 450 MW in India.

“We continue to see large opportunities for the growth of (the) renewable sector and the sale to a discerning infrastructure investor highlights our commitment towards development and operation of high-quality renewable energy projects in India,” Mukundan Srinivasan, managing director and CEO of SP Infra, said an online statement.

Sanjiv Aggarwal, partner in Actis’ energy business, said the acquisition is part of the company’s target of operating 2 GW of renewables in India. “With this acquisition, the total operating and under construction capacity of Sprng Energy, our 100%-owned renewable platform, will increase to 1,650 MW,” he said. “We continue to look for opportunities to grow this portfolio further through both M&A and new bids.”

Led by reclusive billionaire Pallonji Mistry, SP Infra is part of Shapoorji Pallonji Group, which is involved in engineering, construction, energy, infrastructure, real estate, textiles, financial services and water. According to Bloomberg, the group — which is valued at roughly $5.6 billion — has raised at least $4.3 billion of bonds and loans since the beginning of 2014. It had been aiming to raise about $417 million by March of this year through the sale of assets and capital injections from the group’s founding family.

Last November, the group announced plans to raise about $1 billion by selling as much as 30% of its stake in the solar engineering arm of Sterling & Wilson.

Actis is a global private equity fund that invests exclusively in growth markets. Under Actis Energy Fund 4, it is committing $450 million to set up 2 GW of solar and wind capacity by 2020. Its Sprng Energy unit currently has 750 MW (AC) of solar and 697.5 MW of wind under development. With 194 MW of PV capacity already operational, it claims a total renewables portfolio of about 1.4 GW in India.