Actis acquires majority stake in Southeast Asia renewables platform Levanta Renewables
- First Actis Energy Infrastructure investment in Vietnam supporting country’s carbon-neutral commitment
- Levanta Renewables is a renewable platform with a strong team and 300MW of advanced onshore wind development pipeline in Vietnam
- Opportunity to scale the business into a sustainability leader across Southeast Asia targeting 1.5GW of renewable energy capacity
London, Singapore, 11 August 2022: Actis, a leading global investor in sustainable infrastructure, has signed an agreement to acquire a majority stake in Levanta Renewables (“Levanta”), a leading Vietnam and Southeast Asia-focused renewables platform.
Founded by Sudhir Nunes, who has significant experience in executing renewable power projects, Levanta has 300MW of onshore wind power projects in advanced development. With Vietnam as the anchor market, Actis will build on Levanta’s pipeline and apply its proven buy-and-build strategy to scale the business into a 1.5GW renewable platform across Southeast Asia, delivering power to a range of offtakers, including C&I customers.
The acquisition, Actis’ first Energy Infrastructure investment in Vietnam, will support the country’s national climate target to achieve Net-Zero by 2050. Actis’ contribution to the deployment of renewable technologies in this market will be a key enabler of Vietnam and Southeast Asia’s Energy Transition. The transaction follows Actis’ recent launch of Singapore headquartered Bridgin Power, a gas power generation business dedicated to delivering an equitable Energy Transition in Southeast Asia.
Actis’ in-house Sustainability team will work in partnership with Levanta to establish world-class ESG standards across the business and will report on positive impact using the Actis Impact Score™, Actis’ proprietary framework measuring the positive social and environmental impacts of its investments, closely aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Having recently joined the Global Wind Energy Council’s (GWEC) Board, Actis will draw on its considerable experience stewarding renewable energy projects to deliver clean power across the region.
Rahul Agrawal, Director Energy Infrastructure at Actis said: “We are excited to be making our first Energy Infrastructure investment in Vietnam, a country which leads the way in Southeast Asia for renewable energy deployment and which has committed to Net-Zero by 2050. Our proven experience as builders and operators of sustainability leaders will allow us to support the low carbon transition in Vietnam and Southeast Asia, a region in which the energy supply is traditionally heavily dependent on fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and gas. We look forward to working with Sudhir and the established team at Levanta as we accelerate our plan to build 1.5GW of wind and solar energy capacity.”
Sudhir Nunes, Founder and Managing Director at Levanta Renewables said: “I’m delighted to be partnering with Actis, a world-class builder and operator of sustainable infrastructure with a proven track record in delivering renewable energy to countries and communities where it is needed most. Vietnam committed to decarbonising its energy supply at Cop 26 and we will actively support Vietnam and Southeast Asia’s Energy Transition through the execution of our existing onshore wind projects in Vietnam and future solar and wind projects in the region.”
The transaction will be funded through Actis’ Energy 5 Fund, which represents US$6 billion of investable capital to accelerate the Energy Transition globally. The Actis Energy Infrastructure team has invested in over 70 renewable energy projects to date, with approximately 11GW of renewable energy capacity globally.
Recent highlights include the sale of Sprng Energy, one of India’s largest renewable energy companies, the launch of a gas power generation business, Bridgin Power, dedicated to delivering an equitable Energy Transition in Southeast Asia, an investment in Omega Energia, the largest publicly listed pure-play renewable energy generation company in Latin America, the launch of Rezolv, a Central and South Eastern Europe renewables platform and an agreement to acquire a controlling stake in Yellow Door Energy, a leading Middle East and Africa focused distributed solar C&I platform.
Closing of the transaction is expected in Q3 2022, subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.