UPDATE - ACS to keep gigawatts of renewables after selling some to Vinci

Spanish civil and construction engineering giant ACS Actividades de Construccion y Servicios SA (BME:ACS) will be left with around 3,686 MW of renewable energy projects and plants in operation, after it finalises the sale of its industrial services division to French competitor Vinci SA (EPA:DG).

In a bourse filing on Tuesday, the Spanish company provided more details about what is staying in the ACS house and what will developed for its future joint venture (JV) with Vinci.

Last week, the French construction group and concessionaire agreed to buy most of ACS’s industrial service division, which provides a wide range of specialised services for the energy sector such as construction and maintenance of power and gas grids, among others.

The deal, to be worth almost EUR 5 billion (USD 5.91bn) upon the close at the end of 2021, also includes the acquisition of ACS’s renewables platform, eight concessions, and additional money paid to the industrial services division for developing up to 15 GW of renewables for the JV to absorb.

According to ACS’s filing, its division has a global pipeline of 25 GW of renewable energy projects that will serve as the basis for the new Vinci-ACS platform. This includes 11,730 MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) and 11,964 MW of wind power projects, while 4% of the pipeline is labeled as other renewables.

By territory, Latin America groups 36%, or 8,871 MW, of these projects, 12% or 2,906 MW are in North America, while 2,536 MW or 10% are in Spain. Projects in the rest of Europe and the rest of the world total 10,356 MW, shows ACS’s donut graph.

ACS will not be selling its Zero-E platform for renewables and 15 concessions, which it said have a net asset value of EUR 1.4 billion. This portfolio includes operating facilities and projects in various stages of development and construction, some fully and some partly-owned by ACS.

Among them are 3,033 MW of solar PV projects and plants in Spain, and 373 MW of wind power -- operating and under construction -- in Mexico, Uruguay, Spain and the UK.

The UK project is the 50-MW Kincardine floating offshore wind farm that ACS is building off the coast of Scotland.

Other renewables include three concentrated solar power (CSP) plants and projects totalling 260 MW in Spain, South Africa and the US, and one 20-MW hydroelectric plant in Peru.

These assets, as well as concessions in transmission lines, water desalination and water treatment plants around the world and a gas compression platform in Mexico, will be carved out before the deal with Vinci is finalised.

ACS added that the sale of the industrial services division will enable it to accelerate the process of shifting the group towards sustainable construction and concessions, and strengthen its finances to face new highway and renewable energy projects.

(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.182)

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