Indian wind turbine maker Suzlon Energy is in talks to buy the remaining nine percent stake in German unit REpower Systems AG, its chief financial officer said on Monday.
“Yes, we are working toward it,” Robin Banerjee said at the Reuters India Investment Summit in Mumbai, when asked if Suzlon was in talks with REpower. He also said the two brands would continue operating independently after a complete merger, adding that Suzlon had no plans to sell a stake in REPower.
Local media had earlier said that Suzlon might sell up to 25 percent in REpower for $500 million.
Suzlon Energy, which holds 91 percent of REpower, is the world’s third-largest wind turbine maker behind Denmark’s Vestas and Spain’s Gamesa.
Banerjee said Suzlon would like to grow its revenue from China by 40 to 50 percent, driven by strong demand for renewable energy.
“Because we are inside the country, we are manufacturing there…and major installations are taking place in China. We should be able to take advantage of that in a major way,” he said, referring to Suzlon’s presence in China.
China will make up about a third of Suzlon’s total business by 2015, helped by Beijing’s strong incentives to promote clean energy, its chief Tulsi Tanti told Reuters earlier this month.
China brings in about five percent of Suzlon’s total revenue now, Banerjee said.
China’s wind capacity reached around 13 gigawatts by the end of 2009, double the figure at the end of 2008, and government officials suggest it could raise the figure to 150 GW by 2020. Banerjee also said he expected demand in the United States, which accounts for 10 percent of its revenue, to remain sluggish over the next two quarters as companies await a new legislation on renewable energy.
The wind power industry has grown rapidly over the past decade, but the financial crisis that hit many of the world’s biggest banks had choked off financing for many new clean energy projects.
The company, whose order book stood at nearly $5 billion as on August, is looking beyond its fast growing markets of India, China and Brazil and will foray into Chile, Mexico and Argentina by end of the next year to boost growth, Banerjee said.
