Ayana greenlights JSW unit & ONGC into final round; renewable energy co valued at up to $1.8 bn
JSW Neo Energy and Oil & Natural Gas Corp are the last two left in the fray to acquire Ayana Renewable Power, a green energy company controlled by National Investment & Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), said people directly aware of the matter.
The two companies were among the four shortlisted in April to conduct due diligence after multiple parties submitted non-binding offers for the renewable power company. The revised term sheets were submitted last week. The offers peg Ayana’s enterprise value between $1.6 billion and $1.8 billion, the people said.
Uncompetitive Offers
Enterprise value includes debt and liquid assets. Bids of Sembcorp and Macquarie, the other two shortlisted companies, were deemed lowball and thereby uncompetitive. Ayana Renewable Power’s ownership is split three-way, with government-anchored NIIF as the dominant shareholder (51% stake). British International Investment (32%) and Eversource Capital (17%) are the other shareholders.
ET first reported on May 4 that JSW Neo Energy was among five players that had submitted non-binding offers for Ayana Renewable Power. The others were Sembcorp, Macquarie, Masdar and Sekura Energy. On May 16, ET reported that state-run ONGC had also joined the bidding process.
JSW Neo Energy and ONGC declined to comment while NIIF did not respond to queries until press time on Wednesday.
Ayana Renewable Power’s three co-investors led by NIIF had collectively committed to pump in $721 million in equity funding into the company. Its debt is estimated to be between $800
