Status: 02.10.2022 19:12
RWE takes over a US solar specialist for 6.8 billion dollars. The deal is co-financed by the Qatari sovereign wealth fund, making it the largest shareholder in the energy supplier from Essen.
RWE is strengthening its business with renewable energies in the USA with an acquisition worth almost seven billion euros. The energy group is buying the solar system developer and operator Con Edison Clean Energy Businesses from the regional supplier Con Edison from New York. The completion of the transaction is still subject to official approvals and, according to RWE, is expected to take place in the first half of 2023.
The $6.8 billion (€6.9 billion) takeover, including debt, says RWE has almost doubled its portfolio of wind, solar and battery storage facilities in the US and now has an installed capacity of 7 .2 gigawatts.
Qatar increases RWE stake through co-financing
For RWE, it is the largest takeover since the spin-off of Innogy in 2018. The Essen-based group is receiving financing support from Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, QIA. This draws a 2.43 billion euro mandatory convertible bond. This means that QIA can take a good nine percent stake in RWE and become its largest shareholder. The Gulf state is already involved in Germany with Deutsche Bank, Volkswagen and Porsche.
“The acquisition of Con Edison Clean Energy Businesses represents an enormous boost for RWE’s green expansion in the USA, one of the most attractive and fastest growing markets for renewable energy,” said CEO Markus Krebber. This will make RWE number two in the USA among operators of solar systems and number four overall for renewable energies. However, the distance to number one, NextEra, which has an installed capacity of 58 gigawatts, is large.