Reliance Industries' arm to acquire 40% stake in Sterling & Wilson Solar

Reliance Industries on Sunday said it will acquire 40 per cent stake in Sterling & Wilson Solar Ltd (SWSL), a global pure-play, end-to-end solar engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) solutions provider, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Reliance New Energy Solar Ltd (RNESL).

RNESL executed definitive agreements with Shapoorji Pallonji and Company Private Ltd (SPCPL), SWSL and its chairman Khurshed Daruvala to acquire 40 per cent stake in the company through a series of transactions, the company said in a release.

The acquisition will provide further thrust to Reliance's ambition to establish and enable up to 100 GW of solar energy in India by 2030 and become a global player in the renewable industry.

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The RIL arm will acquire 15.46 per cent stake in the company through preferential allotment of 2.93 crore equity shares at a price of Rs 375 per share, while it will also acquire 1.84 crore equity shares, equivalent to 9.70 per cent stake, from company's promoter SPCPL at the same price.

Post this, RNESL will also make an open offer to the public shareholders of SWSL to acquire up to 4.91 crore equity shares of the company, representing 25.9 per cent stake, as per the regulation of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

"RNESL will hold 40 per cent of the equity capital of SWSL, consequent to acquisition in the open offer, follow-on acquisition of shares from SPCPL and Khurshed Daruvala, and sell down, if any required," RIL said in a release.

Daruvala will continue to be chairman of the board and lead the next phase of growth for SWSL, it added.

SWSL provides EPC services primarily for utility-scale solar power projects, with a focus on project design and engineering, and manages all aspects of project execution from conceptualisation to commissioning. It has been executing projects globally and has to its credit more than 11.4 GWp of solar power projects across geographies.

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It also provides operations and maintenance (O&M) services, including for projects constructed by third parties, and currently manages a portfolio of 8.8 GWp. SWSL is present in 24 countries, and has operations in India, Southeast Asia, Middle East, Africa, Europe, the Americas, and Australia.

The acquisition is part of RIL's push for green energy. Earlier today, the company announced RNESL's acquisition of 100 per cent stake in  REC Solar Holdings AS (REC Group) from China National Bluestar (Group) Co Ltd for an enterprise value of $771 million.

"Reliance is committed to making India a global leader in green energy based on the latest and most cost-competitive technologies and development capabilities. This partnership with SWSL will provide it access to world-class talent, engineering and project management skills and complement Reliance's proven strengths in digital technology, engineering, and procurement and project execution," the release said.

Combined with Reliance's plans to set up four state of art giga factories in Gujarat's Jamnagar, the partnership offers fully integrated product with unrivaled engineering capabilities.

"SWSL, with its engineering talent, deep domain knowledge, global presence, and experience of executing some of the most complex projects globally, will become an important part of our solar value chain. This will enable us to deliver our comprehensive, end-to-end ecosystem leading to cost-efficient green energy for Indian consumers," RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani said.

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