The Greenko Group has acquired Orange Renewables in a billion-dollar deal. The deal is for an enterprise value of approximately $1.02 billion, which includes $680 million of debt which will be taken over by Greenko from Orange. The equity infusion in the transaction has been valued at approximately $340 million.

Headquartered in New Delhi, a 100 percent subsidiary of AT Holdings, Singapore, Orange Renewables is focused on developing, constructing and operating renewable energy projects in the field of wind and solar energy across India with presence in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan.

Mercom’s source at Greenko confirmed the deal, adding that through the acquisition, Greenko will take over approximately 907 MW of operational solar and wind projects from Orange Renewables, and over 500 MW assets under development.

According to Mercom’s India Solar Project Tracker, Orange has approximately 140 MW of commissioned solar projects. Greenko has over 1,039 MW of commissioned solar projects and a project development pipeline of nearly 295 MW.

According to the latest report released by Mercom India Research – India Solar Market Leaderboard 2017, Greenko emerged as the top project developer in 2017.

This is not the first acquisition for Greenko. In November 2016, Greenko completed the acquisition of SunEdison’s 587 MW Indian wind and solar projects for a cash payment of $42 million and assumption of project-level debt of $350 million (at an average interest rate of 11.3 percent). The enterprise value of the transaction was approximately $392 million.

The acquisition of Orange Renewables by Greenko is the third largest in terms of deal value and size in the Indian renewable energy sector. First comes ReNew Power’s acquisition of Ostro Energy for close to $1.63 billion, followed by Tata Power Renewable Energy’s acquisition of 100 percent shareholding in Welspun Renewables Energy (WREPL) and its subsidiaries for $1.4 billion.

The third paragraph of this article has been updated with correct numbers