Inox Clean Energy set to buy Actis-owned Athena Renewables for Rs 2,500 crore

Privately held Inox Clean Energy is close to acquiring Athena Renewables from UK-based fund Actis for an enterprise value of Rs 2,500 crore, people familiar with the matter said.

The transaction is nearing conclusion, with both sides having reached an in-principle agreement, they said.

There were multiple contenders for Athena, including independent power producers and private equity firms.


Inox Clean Energy operates in two related businesses—renewable power generation and solar equipment manufacturing. It has been on an acquisition spree ahead of a planned initial public offering, buying individual assets and companies as part of a strategy to scale up quickly.

The acquisition of Athena would take its total operational renewable energy generation capacity to close to 5 GW, the people cited earlier said. Its pipeline of projects under construction could be twice as large.

ET first reported in January that Actis had put Athena Renewables on the block and appointed Kotak Mahindra Capital to manage the transaction.

Inox Clean Energy and Actis did not respond to ET’s queries.

Actis acquired Athena in 2020 as a wholly owned solar platform comprising two large projects—Rewa and Solar Energy Corporation of India-Andhra Pradesh. The platform has since built a portfolio of four solar power plants with a combined capacity of more than 554 MW, according to Athena Renewables’ website.

Athena’s assets include a 336-MW power plant at Rewa Ultra Mega Solar Park in Madhya Pradesh and three independent power plants, each with a capacity of 72 MW, at Ananthapuramu Ultra Mega Solar Park in Andhra Pradesh.

The assets were commissioned in financial years 2018-19 and 2019-20 and have an operational track record of about seven years and six months, according to a recent CareEdge report.

Athena sells all its power under 25-year power purchase agreements to government-owned entities and distribution companies, with its offtakers having credit quality equivalent to that of the central government, according to Actis’ website.

Inox Clean Energy bought US-based Boviet Solar for $750 million in May to ramp up its manufacturing capacity for solar modules and cells and create a platform to serve the US market. It also manufactures these products domestically. At the same time, it announced a foray into Africa through the acquisition of Skypower, a renewable energy generation company backed by US’ largest public pension fund CalPERS.

In India, Inox Clean Energy’s significant acquisitions in recent months include the purchase of Vibrant Energy from Macquarie and Vena Energy from Global Infrastructure Partners-BlackRock.

The company has also raised Rs 7,000 crore through private placements of equity over the past few months from a group of global and local investors, including CalPERS, Adar Poonawalla, Motilal Oswal, Hero Group, ENAM and RJ Corp.

Actis has been one of the more successful foreign investors in India’s infrastructure sector. It currently operates three renewable energy platforms in the country—BluPine Energy, Athena Renewables and Stride Climate Investments. It acquired Stride from Macquarie Asset Management in 2024.

Actis had previously incubated Ostro Energy and Sprng Energy and subsequently sold both companies.