Repsol, Engie in race for renewable power company Asterion -sources

Greenhill & Co

17/10/2022 20:19

By Isla Binnie and Andres Gonzalez
       LONDON, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Spanish oil and gas company
Repsol  REP.MC  and French utility Engie  ENGIE.PA  have
submitted indicative offers to buy European renewable power
company Asterion Energies, three sources with knowledge of the
matter told Reuters.
    Madrid-based Asterion is working to build wind and solar
plants in Spain, France and Italy with an expected combined
capacity of 6 gigawatts. One gigawatt of power is roughly
equivalent to the average production from one nuclear plant,
although, unlike nuclear, renewable power is intermittent. 
    Investment bank Greenhill, which is handling the sale,
started collecting nonbinding offers from a small group of
interested parties this week, the sources said.
    Asterion, owned by investment fund Asterion Industrial Infra
I, could be valued at up to 750 million euros ($738.08 million)
depending on bidders' interest, two of the sources said.
    The possible sale comes amid market turmoil and financing
challenges for most bidders due to rising interest rates.
    Repsol, Asterion and Greenhill declined to comment. Engie
did not reply to a request to comment. 
    Asterion Industrial Infra could opt to keep control if
offers are underwhelming and pursue a so-called continuation
fund strategy whereby investment firms sell stakes in one or
more portfolio companies from one fund to another in the absence
of competitive bids from outside investors, two sources said.
    Some of the power plants are already operational while
others are at various stages of development, the sources said.
The sale includes a team of 29 employees.
    In line with other oil and gas groups responding to
government and shareholder pressure to cut carbon emissions, 
Repsol has built more than 1.6 gigawatts of renewable power
sites around the world. 
    Repsol said in September its low-carbon business would
benefit from a $4.8 billion cash injection it received from the
sale of a stake in its oil and gas exploration division to U.S.
fund EIG.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N30E0WT
    Engie agreed last year to buy Spanish renewable energy group
Eolia Renovables as part of its own race to go green. 
 ($1 = 1.0162 euros)
 (Reporting by Andres Gonzalez in London and Isla Binnie in
Madrid
Editing by Pamela Barbaglia and Matthew Lewis)
 ((andres.gonzalez@thomsonreuters.com; 0034 647 69 49 89;
Reuters Messaging:
andres.gonzalez.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))