Morgan Stanley hires Citi to find a buyer for its 83% stake in CGE
Continuum, which has 807.4 megawatts (MW) of operational wind and solar assets, also has 1.07 gigawatts (GW) capacity under various stages of development.
S investment bank Morgan Stanley has hired Citibank to find a buyer for its majority stake in clean energy firm Continuum Green Energy (India) Pvt. Ltd, two people aware of the matter said.
Continuum, which has 807.4 megawatts (MW) of operational wind and solar assets, also has 1.07 gigawatts (GW) capacity under various stages of development. Morgan Stanley has around 83% stake in the clean energy platform founded by Arvind Bansal and Vikash Saraf in 2009. North Haven Infrastructure Partners, a global infrastructure fund managed by Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners, had in 2012 invested $212.03 million in Continuum.
The proposed transaction comes in the backdrop of large deals returning to India’s green energy space, the latest case in point being private equity firm Actis Llp evincing interest in Global Infrastructure Partners’ (GIP’s) Indian clean energy platform Vector Green Energy.
Also, Canadian pension fund Ontario Municipal Employees’ Retirement System recently announced its plan to purchase 19.4% stake in Azure Power Global Ltd for $219 million and Thailand’s PTT Group announced its acquisition of 41.6% stake in Avaada Energy Pvt. Ltd for around $454 million.
“Citibank has been given the mandate for selling Morgan Stanley’s stake in Continuum Green Energy. The process has started,” said one of the two people cited above, requesting anonymity. The Continuum stake sale plans have been on for some time now. ReNew Power Ventures Pvt. Ltd had evinced interest in buying Morgan Stanley’s majority stake in Continuum Green Energy, as reported by Mint earlier.
