Actis nears Stride deal amid renewable boom

Actis signed a $325 million deal to buy Macquarie's green energy platform

- Utpal Bhaskar

General Atlantic-owned Actis LLP has signed a sales and purchase agreement (SPA) to buy Macquarie Group Ltd's green energy platform Stride Climate Investments for an enterprise value of around $325 million, said two people aware of the development.

Bank of America Corp. (BofA) is running the sale process for the deal with an equity value of around $163 million. It is expected to be completed by February.

Mint reported on 28 December 2023 that Actis is one of the firms interested in the Stride platform, which has more than 415 megawatts (MW) of renewable assets in India. The other interested buyers were Gentari Sdn, a subsidiary of Malaysia's state-run Petronas and Sekura Energy Ltd, backed by Edelweiss Infrastructure Yield Plus Fund, according to the report.

Moneycontrol reported on 19 October that Actis is edging ahead of other suitors and emerging as a frontrunner to acquire Stride. "The SPA has been inked, with the Stride's sale process expected to be completed by February-end," said one of the two people on the condition of anonymity.

This comes as Macquarie is bringing back its Green Investment Group (GIG) platform-Vibrant Energy-for sale and has appointed Standard Chartered to run the process. Earlier, it mandated JPMorgan to sell Vibrant Energy for an equity value of around $250 million but the plan was dropped over a valuation mismatch.