EDP Renováveis, whose parent company EDP Portugal has China Three Gorges as its largest shareholder, is set to invest EUR 1.5 billion in Singapore´s Sunseap group until 2025.
“We want to grow, leverage even more and take advantage of the region’s growth”, EDP CEO Miguel Stilwell d’Andrade told Lusa News Agency after the acquisition of Sunseap was announced.
According to a statement by EDP, the acquisition of 87.4% of Sunseap, “the largest distributed solar energy operator and the fourth largest solar energy operator in Southeast Asia”, for 600 million euros, “represents a valuation of the company Singapore of EUR 870 million”.
“Strategically, it is a transaction that obviously has a great fit with EDP’s portfolio”, Stilwell d’Andrade said. “We have truly become a global company, with a presence in the four major regions: the United States, Europe, Latin America and now also Asia”, something that allows “to take advantage of this growth that exists, the entire size of the Asian market and all the growth that is also expected over the next few years,” he stressed.
Sunseap “is a solar energy operator based in Singapore and more than 400 workers spread across nine markets: Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, China, Japan and Taiwan”, according to the EDP statement. Between the signing and closing of the transaction, EDPR may increase its stake to 91.4%, EDP said. EDP will keep the group’s management team.
“Now the key word will be to consolidate our presence”, highlighted Stilwell d’Andrade, adding that EDP has entered “many markets in the last 12 or 18 months”. The focus, “more than expanding the number of countries, will now be to consolidate”, he highlighted.
EDP has planned, for that region, an investment of EUR 1.4 billion euros, which is partly allocated to this operation in the Sunseap group. “For us, this is an absolutely strategic operation because it complements our portfolio and adds a fourth geographic platform to what is EDPR’s portfolio”, highlighted the EDP CEO.
As for future operations in the region, the CEO said that EDP will be more focused “on developing the company’s existing portfolio”, but will not stop “looking at other opportunities that can complement this company or other geographies or technologies,” he stressed.
The Singapore group’s portfolio includes 5.5 GW [gigawatts] of renewable projects at different stages of development: solar projects of 540 MW [megawatts] in operation and under construction, 127 MW of assured new capacity and a portfolio of 4, 8 GW at different stages of development, according to EDP.
