Mukesh Ambani buys two green firms in clean energy push

Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd announced two back-to-back acquisitions on Sunday. The oil-to-retail conglomerate acquired Norway-based solar panel manufacturer REC Solar Holdings at a USD 771 million buyout deal and also purchase of 40% stake in Shapoorji Pallonji Group’s Sterling & Wilson Solar at an enterprise value of USD 372 million. The two acquisitions will help Reliance New Energy Solar expand its footprint in green energy markets, including the U.S., Europe, Australia and elsewhere in Asia.




Reliance New Energy Solar Ltd (RNESL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of RIL, acquired “100% shareholding of REC Solar Holdings AS (REC Group) from China National Bluestar (Group) Co Ltd for an Enterprise Value of USD 771 million (about Rs 5,800 crore),” the firm said in a statement.

Hours later, it announced through another statement buying of a 40% stake in solar engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) firm Sterling & Wilson Solar Ltd (SWSL) in a multi-stage transaction for about Rs 2,845 crore.

While REC makes solar grade polysilicon and solar panel and modules at facilities in Norway and Singapore, and has more than 1,300 employees globally, SWSL has expertise of executing 11-plus gigawatts of solar turnkey projects globally.

Reliance will use REC’s technology to manufacture metallic silicon and solar panels and SWSL’s EPC expertise at its gigafactory at Jamnagar in Gujarat, with initial annual capacity of 4 gigawatts, eventually rising to 10GW.

The REC acquisition is an outright purchase while the 40% stake in SWSL would be done through “a combination of primary investment, secondary purchase and open

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The RIL Chairman has announced in June that his group will spend $10 billion on alternative energy over three years. The new investments are meant to pivot the conglomerate to cleaner fuels. Reliance gets nearly 60% of its annual revenue from its oil-related business.

“It is in line with our strategy of investing in new and advanced technologies and operating capabilities aimed at achieving Reliance’s goal of enabling 100 GW clean and green energy before the end of this decade,” he said in a statement.