Brookfield enters deal to buy France’s Neoen for $6.6 billion

(Reuters) -Canada’s Brookfield said on Thursday that it, together with Brookfield Renewable Partners and Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, has entered into exclusive discussions to buy majority stake in French renewable power producer Neoen valuing it at around 6.1 billion euros ($6.6 billion).

Asset manager Brookfield said it is in talks to buy a 53.32% stake for 39.85 euros per share from Neoen main shareholders, and then the remainder of the company at the same price, according to a joint statement by the companies.

The offer price was almost 27% higher than Neoen’s last closing price. Shares of Neoen closed at 31.40 euros on Wednesday, giving the company a market cap of about 4.8 billion euros.

Bloomberg News reported on the potential deal on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

“Brookfield’s offer implies an equity value for 100% of the shares of 6.1 billion euros,” Neoen said in a statement.

Brookfield and partners will buy a 42% stake in Neoen owned by French billionaire Jacques Veyrat’s Impala SAS and the balance from other shareholders of Neoen, an independent producer of renewable energy operating in 16 countries.

Brookfield plans to make an all cash tender offer for the rest of Neoen at the same price and take it private once the majority stake purchase was completed, according to the statement.

“Our Board of Directors fully welcomes the transaction,” said Xavier Barbaro, Neoen’s chairman and CEO, in the statement.

The deal marks one of the biggest take private deals in Europe this year and comes at a time when renewable energy assets are drawing strong investor interest amid a global push for energy transition.

It also comes after Singapore state investment firm Temasek opened its Paris office in April. Temasek planned to invest S$20 billion to S$25 billion ($18.49 billion) in the EMEA region over the next five years, a spokesperson said during the Paris office opening.

Founded in 2008, Neoen has expanded to become one of the world’s biggest renewable energy companies with a portfolio in solar power, wind power and storage, according to its websites. Its capacity in operation and under construction stood at 8 GigaWatt, its websites showed.

($1 = 0.9263 euros)

($1 = 1.3523 Singapore dollars)

(Reporting by Gnaneshwar Rajan in Bengaluru and Olivier Sorgho in Gdansk and Yantoultra Ngui in Singapore; Editing by Varun H K, Stephen Coates and Michael Perry)