Shell Agrees to Buy India’s Sprng Energy for $1.55 Billion

The deal will triple Shell’s operational renewables capacity and help it achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, the company said in a statement on Friday. The transaction was first reported by Bloomberg.

“This deal positions Shell as one of the first movers in building a truly integrated energy transition business in India,” said Wael Sawan, director of Shell’s integrated gas, renewables and energy solutions division. “It will enable Shell to become a leader across the power value chain in a rapidly growing market.”

Pivoting to renewable energy after more than a century of pumping oil, Shell has been criticized for not progressing quickly enough by some activists. The company plans to put its energy-transition progress report to a non-binding vote at its annual shareholder meeting scheduled for May 24.

Sprng Energy is a renewable energy platform set up by private equity firm Actis with a commitment of $450 million from one of the firm’s funds, according to its website. It has about 2,503 megawatt-peak of solar projects and roughly 498 MW of wind projects operating or in development, the website shows.

“With Sprng we have built a renewable energy platform that will be fundamental in driving India’s net-zero journey,” Lucy Heintz, a partner and head of energy infrastructure at Actis, said in a statement. “We look forward to creating more Sprngs with our latest fund, Actis Energy 5,” which was formed in October with $6 billion of investable capital.

The Shell deal is subject to regulatory clearance and is expected to close later in 2022, according to the statement.