Sprng Energy has changed ownership twice in under four years. Here’s a timeline of how the renewable energy platform evolved from an Actis startup to Aditya Birla Group’s latest acquisition.
Indian renewable energy platform Sprng Energy has changed hands twice in less than four years. In the latest chapter of its ownership journey, Shell Plc on Monday announced the sale of Sprng Energy to Aditya Birla Renewables Ltd (ABRen) in a deal with an enterprise value of $1.8 billion.
Here’s a timeline of Sprng Energy’s evolution since its inception.
January 2017: Actis sets up Sprng Energy.
August 2022: Actis sells Sprng Energy to Shell at an enterprise value of $1.55 billion.
2023: Aditya Birla Group hires Standard Chartered to sell up to a 49% stake in its renewable energy business.
January 2023: Wael Sawan takes over as Shell’s chief executive and begins pivoting away from green energy investments toward higher-return fossil fuel businesses.
March 2024: Shell says it would cut emissions slowly.
October 2024: General Atlantic acquires Actis.
2024: Qatar’s Nebras Power puts on hold its plan to acquire up to a 49% stake in Aditya Birla Group’s renewable energy business for around $400 million.
October 2025: Shell sells its 49% stake in pan-Asian solar developer Cleantech Solar to Singapore’s Keppel Ltd.
2025: Actis, Blackstone and Brookfield emerge among the interested bidders in Shell’s Sprng Energy sale process, to be run by Barclays.
July 2026: Aditya Birla Renewables Ltd (ABRen), a subsidiary of Grasim Industries Ltd, acquires Sprng Energy from Shell at an enterprise value of $1.8 billion.
Sprng Energy has 3.3 gigawatts (GW) of operational capacity, while another 1.7 GW is under construction. Following the acquisition, Aditya Birla Renewables Ltd’s renewable energy capacity will increase to about 9.3 GW, according to a statement from the Aditya Birla Group.
The acquisition will make ABRL the fifth-largest renewable energy company in India, after Adani Green Energy, ReNew Power, Tata Power and NTPC Green Energy.
According to Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman of the Aditya Birla Group, the acquisition aligns with the company’s ambition to build 20 GW of renewable energy capacity over the coming years.
“This acquisition brings together two highly complementary platforms and marks an important milestone in ABRen’s evolution. Together, we will have a diversified portfolio and a deep development pipeline that puts us on course to scale to 20 GWp+ in the coming years. More importantly, it positions us to participate meaningfully in one of the largest energy transformations underway anywhere in the world,” he said.
Renewable energy investments in India have gathered momentum as the government targets 500 GW of non-fossil fuel capacity by 2030. India currently has about 275 GW of renewable energy capacity and 297 GW of total non-fossil fuel capacity.
About the Author
Rituraj Baruah
Rituraj Baruah is a special correspondent covering energy, housing, urban affairs, heavy industries and small businesses at Mint. He has reported on diverse sectors over the last eight years including, commodities and stocks market, insolvency and real estate; with previous stints at Cogencis Information Services, Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) and Inc42.
