Brookfield in talks to buy France's Neoen at US$6.6 billion valuation

financialpost.com:

Brookfield Asset Management Inc. is in exclusive talks to acquire a majority stake in Neoen SA with a view to launch a takeover offer that would value the French renewable energy developer at about €6.1 billion (US$6.6 billion).

The Canadian asset manager is discussing buying a 53.3 per cent stake in Neoen at €39.85 per share, according to a statement on Thursday, confirming an earlier Bloomberg News report. The potential offer represents a 26.9 per cent premium to Neoen’s last closing price in Paris.

Brookfield, together with Brookfield Renewable Partners and Singapore’s Temasek Holdings Pte, plans to purchase the 42 per cent owned by French billionaire Jacques Veyrat’s Impala SAS holding company. It will acquire the remainder from some other Neoen’s shareholders.

Once it has completed the stake purchase, Brookfield intends to make an all-cash tender offer for the rest of the company at the same price — which could take place in the first quarter of next year pending regulatory approvals — and take it private. The board of Neoen unanimously welcomes the proposed offer.

Brookfield’s plan “is to use our capital to accelerate” Neoen’s growth “to meet the growing demand that we continue to see for green power,” said Connor Teskey, the firm’s chief executive of power & transition, in an interview with Bloomberg.

Neoen shares, which were suspended in Paris Thursday, had gained about 11 per cent in the past year before the announcement, giving the company a market value of about €4.8 billion.

A deal would rank as one of the largest take-privates in Europe this year and would come at a time when listed clean-power developers have been drawing takeover interest after declines in their stock prices in the wake of rising interest