Leading infrastructure investor Macquarie Group plans to sell its renewable energy platform in India, Vibrant Energy, two people aware of the development said. Investment bank JP Morgan has been hired to run the sale process, which is likely to value the assets at $500 million (₹4,000 crore).
Vibrant Energy, which primarily sells electricity to corporate and industrial (C&I) customers, operates a renewable energy portfolio of 132MW, with an active pipeline of 3GW. The group develops open access renewable energy solutions (wind and solar) for corporate customers. About 70 per cent stake in Vibrant Energy is owned by Blueleaf Energy, a portfolio company of Macquarie’s Green Investment Group (GIG), while the rest is held by US-based ATN International. In 2020, Blueleaf Energy Asia Pte entered India by acquiring a majority stake in Vibrant Energy Holdings from ATN International (ATN).
Blueleaf Energy has a development pipeline of solar, wind and storage projects in excess of 7GW globally. Macquarie’s GIG has 85+ GW portfolio under development across 25 markets globally.
Vibrant Energy, which delivers a mix of solar and wind energy, has major clients in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
Mails sent to Macquarie and ATN International remained unanswered. In December last year, Vibrant Energy had joined hands with Amazon to set up the retail giant’s wind-solar hybrid project in India. These two projects represent a total of 300MW of renewable energy capacity and will be based in Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka.
Last year, India’s leading digital ICT solutions provider Sify Technologies also signed power purchase agreements (PPAs) with Vibrant Energy for a total 231 MW of solar and wind energy capacity to power Sify’s latest hyperscale data centers.
Veh Srishti Energy (VSEPL), a part of the Vibrant Energy Group, is developing a 54-MW wind power project at Kasar, in Maharashtra, after signing a long-term PPA (20 years) under the group captive structure with Sify Infinit Spaces. The scheduled commissioning date of the project is June 2023. “Given the healthy credit risk profile of the offtaker, the counterparty risk remains low. The PPA has been signed for the entire capacity at a competitive tariff, which is at a discount to the grid tariff, thereby mitigating the offtake and price risks,” said a recent credit report by ICRA.
Macquarie Asia Infrastructure Fund, a leading investor in India, had sold toll road assets in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh to Adani Road Transport (ARTL) last year, for an enterprise value of ₹3,110 crore.
According to the data released by the ministry of new and renewable energy, India’s green energy capacity reached 120.85GW, till December 2022. Solar energy contributed for 52 percent share in the total renewable energy segment, making it the major contributor followed by wind energy with 35 per cent, said the JMK Research report. The government had declared an ambitious target of 175 GW from renewables by 2022.
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