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ReNew, Greenko, Hero eye india assets of exiting SkyPower Global

Bengaluru: At least three Indian developers are eyeing the assets of Canadian renewable energy company SkyPower Global, which plans to exit India after a troubled run in the country.

Hero Future Energies, ReNew Power and Greenko Energy Holdings have been in talks with Toronto-based SkyPower and a deal for its 350 MW of solar assets is expected within a month, people familiar with the development said.

The three companies were unwilling to comment on the matter. SkyPower did not respond to emailed questions.

SkyPower won contracts to set up three solar projects of 50 MW each in Madhya Pradesh in June 2015 and four projects of 50 MW each in Telangana in August that year. It could not commission the MP projects by the stipulated January 2017 deadline mainly because it was unable to acquire enough land at the original site in Rajgarh district.

The company later found alternative land in Khandwa district for two of the projects, but the state-owned agency that agreed to buy its power refused to accept the reasons for the delay and cancelled the PPAs, encashing SkyPower's bank guarantee last August. SkyPower has challenged the cancellation in court.

"SkyPower is desperate to get the MP projects off its hands," said one of the people. "Whoever acquires them will also inherit the problems they face. The valuation is a secondary matter. But developers are still interested because the assets, both in MP and Telangana, are of good quality."

The person said SkyPower had not made any substantial investments either in MP or in Telangana. "It is SkyPower's EPC contractor, Sterling and Wilson, which has been putting in most of the money so far," he said. SkyPower won both the MP and Telangana auctions by quoting tariffs that were record lows in the states at the time.

The three prospective buyers of SkyPower's assets have been on an acquisition drive recently. In one of the biggest deals in the renewable energy sector, Greenko, which is backed by the sovereign wealth funds of Singapore and Abu Dhabi, acquired all 1,500 MW of bankrupt SunEdison's solar assets in India in end-2016. ReNew, which is backed by Goldman Sachs and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, took over 103 MW of wind assets of the KC Thapar Group in November 2017.

Hero Future, part of the Hero Group, acquired 83.5 MW of wind assets from Bhilwara Energy Ltd in October 2017.