Renewable energy M&A rose 40 per cent last year: PWc
30 Jan 2012
Renewable energy mergers and acquisitions surged 40 per cent in value last year, even in the face of uncertain conditions in Europe caused by the EU debt crisis, according to the global consultant PwC.
The firm said in a report, the year saw around $53.5 billion of wind, solar, biofuels, energy efficiency, geothermal, biomass and hydro deals concluded which was up from $38.2 billion in 2010. This is the highest for the four years that PwC has conducted the survey which also saw overall number of deals down to 570 from 606.
The uptrend on mergers and acquisitions even as European governments cut spending to balance budgets amid ''challenging'' debt markets showed how the renewables industry had come of age, Ronan O'Regan, director of energy in London at PwC, said in a phone interview with Bloomberg.
He said total deal value was up, and there had been a trend toward larger-size deals, which reflected increasing maturity in wind and solar. He added it was a surprise as ''the negative drivers seem to outweigh the positives,'' of EU government efforts to cut deficits.
Wind and solar each clocked over $15 billion of deals while $10 billion of transactions were concluded in energy efficiency. European bidders accounted for 48 per cent of the total, North America 24 per cent, and the value of deals with Asian bidders was almost double at $9.4 billion, or 18 per cent of the total, up from 12 per cent last year, the firm said.
Historically, the bulk of deal flow in renewables has been been in hydro power, but deals worth $1 billion or more in wind, solar, biomass and energy efficiency have outnumbered hydro by seven to one, the report said.
