Agnelli empire buys stake in renewable developer TagEnergy

Italy’s billionaire Agnelli family has bought a stake in a major Australian renewable energy developer.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles chairman John Elkann. Picture: AFP

The Agnelli family, which founded the Fiat car company and now owns a majority stake in Ferrari and the Juventus football club, has acquired a stake in Australian renewable energy developer Tag­Energy.

The investment is a major boost to TagEnergy’s growth ambitions, providing much-needed capital as the developer seeks to build 12GW worth of new generation and storage.

Under the terms of the deal, a new parent company of TagEnergy will be created. Exor, the Agnelli family’s listed investment company, will join with the private company of French billionaire Franck Woitiez, known as Impala. The new entity, known as TagHolding, will become the biggest shareholder in TagEnergy. Both investment companies will inject €300m ($493.2m) into TagEnergy to accelerate its developments in Australia, Britain, Portugal and wider Europe.

John Elkann, the chief executive of Exor, said driving the transition away from fossil fuels was critical.

“In joining forces with Jacques Veyrat and the TagEnergy team, who have proven their deep knowledge of the sector and their long-term commitment to building a great company, we are choosing to support an outstanding team in dynamic geographies with great potential,” said Mr ­Elkann.

Impala’s chief executive Jacques Veyrat said the deal would drive TagEnergy’s ambitions. Tag­Energy expects to have 5GW worth of renewable assets, under construction or operation, by 2027.

“Partnering with Exor will enable us to further support TagEnergy’s ambition to expand in multiple regions across the globe and finance the promising projects the TagEnergy team is currently developing,” said Mr Veyrat.

TagEnergy is leading the development of Australia’s largest wind farm, the 1300MW Golden Plains facility in Victoria.

Construction of the development began earlier this year, amid heightened concern that new projects are not being built quickly enough to compensate for the retirement of fossil fuel generators.

The pace of new developments is under the microscope after an ambitious target of having renewable energy account for more than 80 per cent of the country’s electricity generation mix by the end of the decade put further pressure on fossil fuel generators.

TagEnergy – the developers of the Golden Plains project at Rokewood, west of Geelong – took the decision to develop the $2bn wind farm on a fully “merchant” basis. A merchant generator trades in the wholesale market rather than underpinning its revenues by long-term power purchase contracts with customers.

The federal government has estimated the wind farm will generate enough electricity to meet 9 per cent of Victoria’s power demand, and it could yield 770,000 tonnes a year of CO2 emissions abatement.

Originally published as Agnelli empire buys stake in renewable developer TagEnergy