Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management is leading a group of investors including Singapore state investment company Temasek Holdings to acquire a 53.32% stake in French renewable energy developer Neoen, with plans for a 100% buyout of the Paris-based firm.
Brookfield is in talks to buy the controlling stake from Neoen’s main shareholders Impala, a French-firm controlled by billionaire Jacques Veyrat, Fonds Stratégique de Participations (FSP), and Neoen Chief Executive Officer Xavier Barbaro for 39.85 euros (US$43.1) a share. FSP is owned by seven French insurers including BNP Paribas Cardif, Credit Agricole Assurance and Natixis Assurances.
Brookfield and its partners will then buy out the rest of the shares in Neoen at the same price.
Toronto-based Brookfield announced the plan in a statement.
The deal values Neoen at over 6 billion euros. Its market capitalisation just before the deal was announced was 4.8 billion euros. The firm is listed on Euronext Paris.
According to Connor Teskey, chief executive officer of renewable power and transition at Brookfield, Neoen “has one of the world’s greatest renewable energy development platforms”.
“Acquiring Neoen further strengthens Brookfield’s global scale, while diversifying into key renewables markets and adding expertise in battery storage technology,” he says.
Neoen has an 8,000 megawatt portfolio of wind, solar and storage assets in operation or under construction alongside a 20,000-megawatt pipeline of development projects, including in Australia, France and the Nordic countries.