By Kane Wu, Andres Gonzalez and Yantoultra Ngui
HONG KONG/LONDON (Reuters) – Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) has mandated Morgan Stanley and Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group to manage the sale of a controlling stake in Vena Energy, in a deal that could value the Singapore-based renewable energy company at up to $10 billion, two people with knowledge of the matter said.
Vena, fully owned by GIP, is involved in energy storage, solar and wind power with operations in Japan, North Asia, Southeast Asia, India and Australia.
The financial advisers have started gauging interest from potential buyers but an official sale process has not been launched, said one of the people. The exact size of the stake to be sold has not been decided, the sources said.
If materialised, it could be one of the largest renewable transactions globally this year.
GIP, Morgan Stanley and MUFG declined to comment. Vena did not immediately respond to an emailed request seeking comment after working hours on Thursday.
GIP, with co-investments from Chinese state fund China Investment Corp and Canada’s Public Sector Pension Investment Board, agreed to buy Vena Energy, formerly known as Equis Pte, in 2017 for $3.7 billion.
Energy demand in Asia is projected to grow sharply, especially in Southeast Asia, which the International Energy Agency forecast would account for more than a quarter of global energy demand growth until 2035.
Vena reported $277.6 million in revenue and $185,6 million in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for the first half of 2024, which was a 5% decrease year-on-year.
It had 3.2 gigawatt of installed capacity and 2.4 trillion watt hours of clean energy generated for that period, plus 1.1 gigawatt of capacity under construction.
(Reporting by Andres Gonzalez in London, Kane Wu in Hong Kong and Yantoultra Ngui in Singapore; additional reporting by Anton Bridge in Tokyo; Editing by Susan Fenton)
