Actis has sold an African renewable energy platform to electric utility company Engie and infrastructure fund manager Meridiam.

Actis said it has agreed to sell BTE Renewables, which has $1bn (€916m) enterprise value, to the French firms. On completion, Engie will acquire the South African portfolio and team while Meridiam will acquire the Kenyan portfolio and team.

BTE is the second largest renewables player in Africa after Lekela Power, which Actis recently sold.

BTE is focused primarily on utility-scale wind and solar projects. The platform is currently composed of six operating projects totalling 500MW in generating capacity, five of which are in South Africa and one is in Kenya. BTE has a proprietary pipeline of projects under development exceeding 5GW across the region.

Actis established the pan-African renewable energy platform in 2017, with the acquisition of the Kipeto wind project in Kenya in the development stage. In 2019, Actis grew the platform with the acquisition of South Africa-focused BioTherm Energy and rebranded the company BTE Renewables.

Lisa Pinsley, a partner in the energy infrastructure team and head of Middle East and Africa energy at Actis, said the sale of BTE Renewables marks the firm’s fifth energy platform exit in Africa, where Actis has now built and owned 5GW of generation capacity.

Pinsley added: “When we established BTE, our intention was to help meet the growing demand for electricity in Africa. Through our investment and our experience in doing this globally, we have grown and developed a leading power company, with an outstanding team based on the continent and a promising pipeline of projects.”

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