FRANKFURT, March 9 (Reuters) - Japanese renewables group JRE
has been put up for sale by its owners, including Goldman Sachs
, three people familiar with the matter said, a deal
expected to draw interest from European firms eager to enter
Japan's green power market.
Japan Renewable Energy Corporation (JRE) is co-owned by
Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC, which took an undisclosed
stake in 2017.
Interest is expected to come from large European energy
players, including the continent's third-largest renewables firm
RWE as well as oil major Shell, which plans
to aggressively expand in solar and wind, the people said.
Shell and Goldman Sachs declined to comment. GIC and JRE
were not immediately available for comment.
Bloomberg first reported about the sale plans.
Founded in 2012, JRE develops and builds renewable energy
assets and has 419 megawatts (MW) of solar, onshore wind and
biomass capacity in operation, with a further 410 MW under
construction.
Last week it entered the Taiwanese market in its first
overseas expansion and also plans to branch out to include
offshore wind and hydroelectric power projects in its portfolio.
Plans for a sale emerge days ahead of the 10-year
anniversary of Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster that sent
shockwaves through the global power industry, causing companies
and countries, including Germany, to phase out the technology.
A decade on, Japan has turned into a major renewable energy
market, aiming for up to 45 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity,
the equivalent of roughly 45 nuclear plants, by 2040 to
establish itself as a renewable energy leader.
(Reporting by Arno Schuetze, Christoph Steitz and Ron Bousso;
Additional reporting by Aaron Sheldrick and Anshuman Daga;
Editing by Susan Fenton)