(Bloomberg) — RWE AG, Europe’s largest air polluter, is
expanding its efforts in clean energy by leading a $45 million
equity financing round for Conergy, a closely held solar
developer that’s considering an initial public offering within
two years.
RWE will own a minority stake after its investment,
Hamburg-based Conergy said in a statement Tuesday. Terms and
specific investment amounts weren’t disclosed for the round, and
RWE was joined by existing Conergy investors.
The move “is primarily a financial investment” to fund
Conergy’s international expansion and not a strategic one, RWE
spokeswoman Stephanie Moeller said by e-mail. The Essen,
Germany-based company’s Supply & Trading unit typically makes
investments in the energy industry with three- to five-year
timeframes.
RWE is Germany’s largest power generator and sees the solar
sector “a global growth market,” she said. The company has
been a partner in Spain’s Andasol 3 solar thermal power station
with an installed capacity of about 50 megawatts since 2011.
“This latest fund raise is important because we can expand
our global footprint,” Conergy’s Chief Executive Officer Andrew de Pass said in an e-mail Monday. Conergy is majority backed by
Kawa Capital Management, a Florida-based asset manager that in
2013 bought units of it after its parent company filed for
insolvency.
Global solar installations are expected to rise 23 percent
to 58 gigawatts this year, up from 47 gigawatts last year,
according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
Conergy may seek as much as $2 billion in an IPO, Katie
Ullmann, a spokeswoman, said Tuesday by e-mail. The company said
March 2 it expects to deploy about 450 megawatts of rooftop and
ground-mounted systems this year, 50 percent more than last
year.
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To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at
Will Wade, Jim Efstathiou Jr.