Gentari Sdn Bhd, a unit of Malaysia's state-run oil and gas company Petronas, has emerged as the winning bidder for the Indian solar projects of Finland's Fortum Oyj (HLSE:FORTUM), totaling 185MW, two people aware of the development said. Gentari has been given exclusivity-for documentation of the sales process run by Kotak Investment Banking-for the deal at an enterprise value of around $200 million. Mint had reported earlier that Gentari, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (NSEI:ONGC) (ONGC), Singapore's Sembcorp Industries Ltd. (SGX:U96), Edelweiss Infrastructure Yield Plus Fund's Sekura Energy Limited and private equity firm Actis Llp were in the fray for the Finnish state-run energy power utility's Indian assets.

These five bidders were shortlisted from 11 non-binding offers (NBOs) that were submitted. "Gentari, Actis, ONGC and Edelweiss had placed price bids, post which Gentari has been given exclusivity," one of the two people cited above said, requesting anonymity. The deal has generated a lot of interest, given the power from these projects goes to state-run Solar Energy Corp.

of India Ltd, NTPC Ltd. and NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Ltd. Fortum India president Sanjay Aggarwal and spokespeople for Actis and Edelweiss declined to comment. Spokespersons for Kotak Investment Banking, Petronas, Gentari, ONGC and Sembcorp did not respond to queries emailed on February 12, 2024 night.