KACO new energy GmbH, a German solar inverter manufacturer, has announced that it has entered into an agreement with South Korean chemical and renewable energy group OCI for the sale of its South Korean subsidiary, KACO new energy Inc. (KACO).

On January 15 2019, the president of OCI, Woohyun Lee, announced that OCI Power – a subsidiary responsible for the PV business – had completed the acquisition as an asset deal. With the acquisition of KACO, OCI Power is planning to expand its solar PV business with manufacturing technologies for central inverters and other power electronics.

OCI and KACO new energy have also agreed to continue to work closely together at a strategic level on global projects and the distribution of string inverters in South Korea and Japan.

The sale of its company is a strategic move for KACO, which aims to position itself as a key player in the string inverter orientated market, with complimentary offerings of hybrid and reactive power solutions.

KACO new energy’s CEO, Ralf Hofmann said, “We see both major cost advantages and benefits for our customer base in the implementation of string inverters, even in multi-megawatt sized solar parks. We can offer appropriate system solutions for this purpose, which at the same time integrate the advantages of central system designs, but with the additional benefit of speed of installations, massively improved logistics and the potential slashing of operations and maintenance costs.”

“OCI is well positioned to accelerate the sales of both central inverters and also supply of our German manufactured string inverters in South Korea and Japan through its strong local presence,” Hofmann added. KACO new energy GmbH is expected to continue to fulfil and honour existing contractual obligations for already delivered central inverters.

With the acquisition of KACO, OCI expects to achieve synergies in order to strengthen its presence in the domestic solar energy market. OCI also plans to leverage on KACO’s experience in order to increase energy efficiency of its solar power projects.

According to KACO new energy, this deal has reinforced the bond between the two companies. The relationship between KACO new energy GmbH and OCI started in 2012, when OCI built a solar power plant in Texas using KACO new energy’s central inverter technology.

In October 2018, KACO new energy GmbH announced the acquisition of the energy storage company -Energy Depot. Through the acquisition, Kaco new energy wanted to supplement its range of energy storage systems with a market-ready hybrid inverter.

According to Mercom Capital’s 2018 Q4 and Annual Solar Funding and M&A Report, merger and acquisition activity in the solar sector increased with 82 transactions in 2018 compared to 72 transactions in 2017, out of which sixty percent of the transactions involved solar downstream companies.