Keppel Corp, Keppel Asia Infrastructure fund (KAIF) and a co-investor of the fund are acquiring 50% of the interest in Cleantech Solar Asia (CSA) from CEF 200 BV, a fund managed by Climate Fund Managers, for US$115 million.
The acquisition will be made through Cloud Alpha and is expected to close in the first half of 2022.
CSA’s remaining 50% stake is owned by Cleantech Renewable Assets. The consortium previously announced that they were acquiring a 51% stake in Cleantech on December 13, 2021 at a consideration price of US$130 million.
Post-transaction, the consortium’s collective stake in CSA would be 75.5% from 25.5%.
The consideration for the CSA acquisition was reached at a “willing-buyer and willing-seller basis”, taking into account the strategic merits, development pipeline and platform value of CSA as well as synergy with the Cleantech transaction and prevailing market conditions.
The book value and net asset value represented by the CSA shares as at June 31, 2021 was US$58.7 million. Keppel Corp will satisfy its share of the Consideration at US$69 million in cash using internal resources, the company said in a stock exchange filing.
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The transaction is not expected to have any material impact on the earnings per share and net tangible asset per share of Keppel Corp for its FY22 ending Dec 31.
Cleantech is a solar energy platform focused on the commercial and industrial (C&I) segment. It has a strong development pipeline and is targeting to grow its asset portfolio to more than 2.5 GW by 2026, the company said.
CSA is the asset company under Cleantech and currently has a total capacity of over 600 megawatts across various stages of operations, construction and development. Its assets are located across India, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Singapore and Vietnam.
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Keppel Corp CEO Loh Chin Hua said the increased stake in Cleantech’s solar asset portfolio is a testament to its commitment in growing its renewables business as part of Vision 2030.
“Increasing our additional stake in Cleantech’s solar assets, through the acquisition of our stake in CSA, will also increase the Keppel Group’s exposure to Cleantech’s growing solar business and in turn strengthen the ability to create collaboration and synergy opportunities with the rest of the Keppel Group,”
KAIF is managed by a private fund manager under Keppel Capital. Launched in January 2020, the KAIF partnership and its co-investment vehicles have aggregate commitments of around US$1 billion from global institutional investors.
The fund counts Keppel Corp directors Loh Chin Hua, Till Vestring and Veronica Eng as investors.
Shares in Keppel Corp closed 2 cents lower or 0.23% down on March 15 at $6.09.
Photo: Keppel
