Korean cross-border fund supports US solar panel buyout

Financial details were not disclosed, although the transaction is said to mark KEPCO's largest solar investment in the US to date. The vendor, Canadian Solar, acquired the projects' management company, Recurrent Energy, from Korea's Sharp in a 2015 deal estimated to be worth about $265 million.

The projects are located in southern California and have a combined production capacity of 235 megawatts. According to Recurrent, all three operations have signed long-term power purchase agreements with regional electricity companies.

"These high-quality solar assets are a strategic addition to our renewable energy holdings and will allow us to further diversify our generation portfolio," Bong-soo Ha, executive vice president and chief global business officer at KEPCO, said in a statement. "We expect further cooperation with Canadian Solar and are also pleased to be working with an industry-leading developer like Recurrent Energy as we grow our presence in the attractive US solar market."

COPA Fund was launched in 2011 to help finance overseas M&A activity initiated by Korean conglomerates. The scheme, which brings together NPS, private equity firms, and corporates of various sizes in a number of partnership arrangements, has attracted criticism regarding alignment of interest and regularity of deal flow. 

Previous activity by COPA Fund in the US solar space includes participation in the acquisition of a Colorado-based project from The Carlyle Group in 2016 alongside KEPCO. COPA Fund and KEPCO reportedly took 51% and 49% stakes, respectively paying about $35 million and $17.5 million each.

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• Topics
• North Asia
• North America
• Cleantech
• Buyouts
• South Korea
• USA
• National Pension Service (Korea)
• energy
• M&A