Keppel Consortium to Buy Majority Stake in Shell Solar Unit for Up to US$150 Million

   By Ben Otto 
 

A consortium led by Keppel Corp. will pay up to US$150 million for a controlling stake in a Shell Eastern Petroleum (Ptd) Ltd. solar-energy platform, part of efforts to grow the Singaporean conglomerate's renewables business.

The Keppel consortium, which includes Keppel Asia Infrastructure Fund LP and an investor via Cloud Alpha Pte. Ltd., will acquire a 51% stake in Singapore-based Cleantech Renewable Assets Pte. Ltd., Keppel said late Monday.

Cleantech's existing shareholder, a unit of Netherlands-based Shell Petroleum NV, will hold the remaining stake in Cleantech.

The Keppel consortium will pay US$130 million for its stake, plus up to US$20 million more based on performance milestones. Keppel said it will pay for its share of the deal, amounting to up to US$90 million, via internal cash resources, with Cleantech becoming a Keppel subsidiary.

Cleantech is a solar energy platform with a focus on commercial and industrial segments in India, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Singapore and Vietnam. The company has total capacity of more than 600 megawatts in operation and development, and it targets achieving generation capacity of 3 gigawatts over the next five years, Keppel said. Cleantech's existing customers include Cargill Inc., Coca-Cola Co., Shell Lubricants and others.

Keppel expects Cleantech to benefit from growing regional demand for renewable energy, and it said the deal will help accelerate its growth in renewables as it works to expand its portfolio of such energy assets to 7 gigawatts of capacity by 2030.

It added that the acquisition marks KAIF's first renewable energy investment, forming the fund's "beachhead into the burgeoning solar-energy sector" in the Asia Pacific.

The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2022.

Write to Ben Otto at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 13, 2021 20:12 ET (01:12 GMT)

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