A deal by a Brookfield-led group of investors to enter into exclusive talks to buy up a 53.3 per cent stake in the global renewable energy developer Neoen has put to bed a sale process in Australia for 30 per cent of the business.
Sources this week had suggested the sale process, run by Bank of America, had gone quiet.
The global deal also involves Brookfield’s partner Temasek and the price being paid puts a $US10bn value on Neoen including debt.
Neoen is based in France and is the largest owner and operator of renewables in Australia with 3.8GW of operating and under construction assets.
BNP Paribas and Société Générale advised Brookfield along with legal firm Clifford Chance, while Bank of America advised Neoen with law firm Bredin Prat.
The stake was to be purchased from shareholders including Impala.
Earlier, the price expectations for the Australian operations of Neoen put a value on the unit of $5bn.
The company is seen as one of the best industry operators and its Australian operation is first class.
But, many had expected the sale process, which was being run through Bank of America, would likely stall because the company was only selling 30 per cent.
The groups which would have been most keen to get their hands on Neoen, which has several gigawatts of power it develops, finances, builds and operates, were companies such as Origin and AGL.
But, their interest would be in operating the asset, which means they would not be keen on a minority interest.
Neoen’s chief Xavier Barbaro recently said it wanted to double its capacity of renewable energy in Australia by 2030 to 10 gigawatts, placing it in the same league as Forrest’s Squadron Energy.
Neoen has been trading on a high multiple in France.
Of the possible buyers, sources believed pension funds and superannuation funds would be the most likely buyers, with groups such as Canada’s CDPQ, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Dutch fund APG making the most sense.
The Neoen sale process is the latest in Australia to be placed on the backburner after the process here for global energy provider GPG also stalled amid lofty sale price expectations of $4bn for its Australian arm.
It leaves investment bankers in the infrastructure space largely focusing on the sale of data centre assets right now.
Global infrastructure investor Stonepeak is being tipped as the frontrunner to buy the $2bn-plus Australian data centres owned by Global Switch.
Stonepeak has lobbed an indicative offer while Partners Group is close to the action, and although QIC was thought to be a bidder, it is no longer thought to be in the mix.
The Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board has also been taking a look.
On offer are two major data centres on the western edge of Sydney’s central business district comprising 73,000 sqm of space.
They are owned by Global Switch, which is owned by China’s Jiangsu Shagang Group, and are being sold through UBS.
The $15bn Australian data centre provider AirTrunk is also for sale through Goldman Sachs and owner Macquarie, with first round bids due in the middle of next month.
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