BlackRock Real Assets, the realty investment arm of global asset manager BlackRock, is set to acquire an equity stake in Korean solar development and investment company Brite Energy Partners (BEP), according to a press announcement on Wednesday.
Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
As part of the deal, BlackRock Real Assets will provide BEP with capital of over $100 million “over time” to fund the acquisition and construction of small-scale solar assets in South Korea. The assets will have a power generation capacity of 350 MW, according to the statement.
This marks BlackRock Real Assets’ first investment into South Korea’s small-scale solar sector.
In April, the firm had secured the final close of its third global renewable power fund at $4.8 billion, making it the largest independent climate infrastructure fund globally. The fund, Global Renewable Power Fund (GRP) III, which invests in renewable power generation across Americas, Europe, and Asia, attracted commitments from over 100 institutional investors from over 18 countries. More than a third of the fund’s corpus has been marked for investments in APAC-based climate infrastructure assets.
In July this year, BlackRock Real Assets acquired a 100% stake in Korea Renewable Energy Development & Operation Holdings Co Ltd (KREDO Holdings) — its first investment in South Korea’s offshore wind sector.
Founded in 2017 by Brian Kim, BEP is a leading player in South Korea’s solar sector, which is the sixth largest in the world. South Korea aims to reduce carbon emissions by 40% before 2030, and expects to instal 30 GW of new renewable generation capacity by 2025, with solar accounting for the majority of the addition.
This translates into an average of at least 6 GW of additional solar capacity per year. In recent years, virtually all solar investments in South Korea have been in small projects of less than 3 MW capacity, giving rise to a compelling market opportunity in which BEP can aggregate and lead the nation’s small-scale solar sector.
The BlackRock-BEP strategic move comes on the back of several investments into the global solar market in recent months.
In July, Fubon Life Insurance, the insurance unit of Taiwanese financial conglomerate Fubon Financial Holdings committed to invest 40 billion won ($35 million) in the latest solar asset-focused fund of Korean asset management firm KREDO Holdings, previously known as IGIS Private Equity.
In the same month, Chinese solar giants Jinko Solar Co Ltd and CSI Solar Co Ltd applied for secondary listings on China’s STAR Market, seeking higher valuations from their current US listings. They filed IPO applications to raise 6 billion yuan ($927 million) and 4 billion yuan, respectively, on the STAR Market, according to the Shanghai bourse.
Singapore’s Sunseap Group is planning to spend $2 billion to build the world’s largest floating solar farm and energy storage system in neighbouring Indonesian city Batam, which will double its renewable power generation capacity.
According to Allied Market Research, the global solar energy market was valued at $52.5 billion in 2018 and is projected to reach $223.3 billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 20.5% between 2019 and 2026.