Sterling and Wilson International Solar FZCO (SWFZCO) announced that it has fully acquired the equity share capital of GCO Solar, an Australia-based electrical and solar contractor.

In a BSE filing, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Sterling and Wilson Solar Limited said it held 2,508,000 fully paid-up equity shares worth AUD 1 each (~$0.78), representing 76% of the share capital of GCO.

GCO engages in engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contracts for the installation of electrical equipment in Australia.

SWFZCO said its shareholding in GCO rose to 3,300,000 shares or 100% after it acquired the remaining 792,000 fully paid-up equity shares of GCO, according to the filing. It added that this step-up acquisition made GCO a wholly-owned subsidiary of SWFZCO.

A step-up acquisition is when an investor acquires control over the target entity through more than one transaction. When the investor obtains control of the target entity, it consolidates the company after remeasuring any investment previously held to fair value.

Last year, Sterling and Wilson Solar won an EPC contract in Australia worth AUD 525 million (~₹25.29 billion). It also bagged an operations and maintenance (O&M) contract for AUD 85 million (₹44.09 billion) for 20 years. It secured both contracts within 15 months of its entry into Australia.

Recently, Sterling and Wilson Solar’s said its revenue from operations stood at ₹13.11 billion (~$180.8 million) in the third quarter (Q3) of the financial year (FY) 2021, up 22% from ₹10.76 billion (~$148.4 million) in Q3 FY 2020. It attributed the rise in revenue to a significant increase in project execution in the United States and Latin America during Q3 FY 2021. Its operations and maintenance revenue was also higher by 36.8% in the first nine months of 2021.

Sterling and Wilson Solar also said it had secured an order worth ₹9.3 billion (~$127.5 million) from a Saudi Arabia-based renewable energy company in Egypt’s Kom Ombo region. The order is scheduled to be commissioned by the first quarter of 2022. The company has executed five projects of over 322 MWp in Benban Solar Park in Egypt.