Energy

Masdar buys Greece’s biggest investor in renewables

June 21, 2024, 1:33 PM

Wind turbines above the village of Kotronas in the Peloponnese region. Greece's Terna Energy invests in wind, solar, hydroelectric and pumped storage projects

UAE to snap up Terna Energy
Initial agreement for 67% stake
Masdar plans all-cash offer for rest

The UAE’s state-owned clean energy company Masdar is to acquire a majority share in Terna Energy of Greece.

The initial deal – one of the largest in the European renewables market and the biggest ever energy transaction on the Athens Stock Exchange – is for a 67 percent stake. The price of €20 ($21.45) per share values the Greek enterprise at €3.2 billion.

The agreement was signed with its parent company, construction and power conglomerate GEK Terna, and other shareholders. It is subject to regulatory approvals.

Once the deal is completed, Masdar plans to “launch an all-cash mandatory tender offer to acquire all the remaining outstanding shares of the company to reach 100 percent”, it said in a statement.

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Terna Energy, also known as Tenerg, finances, develops, constructs and runs renewable energy facilities. It focuses on wind, solar, hydroelectric and pumped storage and has projects across Europe.

It is the largest investor in the renewable energy sector in Greece and the country’s largest wind power operator with more than 1 gigawatt in capacity – enough to power 750,000 homes, based on average consumption rates.

By 2030, Terna aims to reach a renewable capacity of 6GW.

It has 63MW of photovoltaics and 560MW of other energy technologies under construction. These projects are set for completion by 2025.

Rystad Energy, a business intelligence company, estimates that renewables surpassed fossil fuels in European power generation in 2022 and that their share will reach 86 percent by 2050.

In Greece, renewables accounted for nearly 60 percent of power generation last year. Wind power capacity topped 5GW.

Masdar, which is owned by Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala and the state energy businesses Adnoc and Taqa, aims to reach 100GW of renewable capacity globally by the end of the decade.

It has invested in more than 40 countries, with deals in Asia, the US and Europe, and how has over 20GW of capacity.

Masdar’s wind projects include the 400MW Dumat Al Jandal wind farm in Saudi Arabia, the 630MW London Array offshore project in the UK and a 1GW wind and battery storage farm in Kazakhstan. In May it signed an agreement with Bapco Energies to develop wind projects in Bahrain.

The latest investment “reflects the UAE‘s clear commitment to Greece and Europe’s clean energy development”, said Sultan Al Jaber, Masdar’s chairman.

“It represents another major step in realising one of the central goals of the UAE consensus [agreed at Cop28], to triple global renewable energy capacity by 2030.”