Shell sells Sonnen to Tiven

Nearly three years have passed since Shell announced that it intended to divest its wholly owned subsidiary Sonnen and was seeking a new investor or at least a majority shareholder. The sale has now been completed. The companies involved did not issue any official announcements, although German business newspaper Handelsblatt learned of the transaction and reported on it around two weeks ago.

In response to an inquiry from pv magazine, Shell confirmed that it completed the sale of Sonnen to Tiven. “This step supports our ongoing efforts to optimize our portfolio. We believe Tiven and Aurelius Water Rise are well positioned to support Sonnen’s further development,” a Shell spokesperson said.

Tiven is an international asset manager and family office. It has an office in Munich, although pv magazine was unable to reach it by phone at the number provided. An email inquiry from pv magazine also went unanswered at the time of publication.

Gert Purkert is a key figure at Tiven, according to Handelsblatt. He is managing director of Tiven, founded Aurelius and is a former McKinsey consultant.

Sonnen did not initially respond to a request for comment.

Handelsblatt reported that Tiven intends to restructure Sonnen with the aim of preparing it for a future resale. The newspaper was unable to obtain further details. Citing people familiar with the matter, it said the purchase price was in the low hundreds of millions of euros.

Shell acquired Sonnen in 2019 for nearly €500 million. Given the residential battery storage provider’s weak financial performance in recent years and an additional capital injection in 2024 to maintain its operations, Handelsblatt described the investment as a deal that had cost Shell losses totaling around €1 billion.

At this year’s The smarter E Europe trade fair in Munich, Sonnen did not have its own booth and was instead represented by a “Coffee Corner.” Shortly before the event, Sonnen Chief Revenue Officer Andreas Plenk told pv magazine that the decision reflected a change in the company’s sales and marketing strategy in Germany.

Asked about the company’s business performance, Plenk said: “In 2025, we returned to growth despite an overall declining market, and our order books are already well filled this year. In general, demand is slowly picking up again after two weaker years. At the same time, many installers remain hesitant to expand their capacity. This is often due to uncertainty over whether the upward trend will continue. Our approach offers them added value during this uncertain phase. We are trading some visibility at the trade fair for better service and closer cooperation with our partners.”

How that strategy will evolve under the new ownership remains to be seen. At present, however, there is no publicly available information about Tiven’s specific plans for Sonnen.