By Yaacov Benmeleh

Oct 14, 2020

(Bloomberg) Israel’s OPC Energy Ltd. will invest nearly $200 million in the “rapid growth” of a recently-acquired renewable energy business in the U.S., according to its chief executive officer.The firm expects half the solar projects developed by Competitive Power Ventures, which an OPC-led group agreed to buy for $630 million this week, to be operational within three years, Giora Almogy said in an interview Wednesday. It will take another two years before all the 2.2 gigawatts-worth of investments are ready, he said.

The Tel Aviv-based company expects to close the deal in about three months, and sees a $25 million boost to its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization next year, Almogy said.

OPC is pushing into the U.S. market amid a boom in solar projects, spurred in part by favorable federal and state policies, according to a BloombergNEF report. Prices for installation have steadily dropped over the past decade, making photovoltaic schemes more competitive against traditional sources of electricity.

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“We told the management of CPV to keep developing their projects; to run and not stop,” Almogy said.

OPC shares have risen 24% in Tel Aviv since it announced the CPV acquisition on Sept. 16, giving the company a market capitalization of 5.1 billion shekels ($1.5 billion).