.Wind sector attracted $ 210 mn VC funding during April-June: Mercom

New Delhi: The wind sector attracted about $ 210 million investments globally from venture capital (VC) funds during April-June. This is against $16 million investments in the sector during the previous three months of January-March.

The investments have picked up with the help of some large deals going to project developers in India, said Mercom Capital Group, llc, a global clean energy communications and consulting firm.

The funds investing in India include ReNew Power where Goldman Sachs has invested $135 million. This has raised the total investment by the global investment banking, securities and management firm in the Indian company to $385 million.

Another project developer from India, NSL Renewable Power, received $60 million in funding from multiple investors. Further, in two smaller funding deals, IDEOL, a designer and installer of foundations for offshore wind projects, raised $9.1 million, and $6.2 million was received by ROMO Wind, a wind technology company focused on improving wind turbine rotor function.

Mercom Capital said that large-scale project funding during April-June totalled $3.2 billion in 24 deals compared to $ 6.2 billion in 29 deals in January-March. There were a total of 42 investors that participated in project funding deals during April-June.

“The strong project acquisition activity shows how wind has evolved into a mature and mainstream energy source and an attractive investment for both private and public firms alike,” said Raj Prabhu, CEO of Mercom Capital.

M&A deals
There were six mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions during April-June, amounting to $ 328 million.

These include acquisition of Salus Fundos de Investimento em Participacoes (Salus) by Copel for nearly $128 million. PNE WIND purchased a 54 per cent share in WKN from former shareholder Volker Friedrichsen Beteiligungs for $122 million. Aksa Energy acquired 93 percent stake in Kapidag Ruzgar Enerjisi Elektrik Uretim for $67 million. Marmen, a high-precision machining, fabrication and mechanical assembly company, acquired a wind tower plant from Broadwind Energy, an independent services provider for $11.7 million. Makani Power was acquired by Google for an undisclosed amount reportedly for its secret Google X skunkworks lab and Urban Wind acquired Myriad Wind for an undisclosed amount.