JSA has advised Hero Future Energies Global (HFE Global) and Hero Future Energies Private Limited (HFE India) in securing a INR36 billion (USD450 million) private equity investment from global firm KKR.
Partners Manvinder Singh and Anant Mishra led the JSA transaction team, with the assistance of senior associate Parnik Saxena and associate Pragya Pandey. The projects advice and competition teams also advised on the transaction.
“[HFE Global] has operations across Asia and Europe and has a fairly complex holding structure at two levels (India and UK). While this would ordinarily make the deal very complex, the transaction involved a very experienced set of investors, target and their respective transaction counsels in two jurisdictions,” Singh said.
He added: “HFE Global management and KKR were singularly focused on closing the deal on agreed terms and the guidance from them was linear and non-confusing. The investors and target wanted to work cohesively and to that extent KKR encouraged the exiting promoters to make a further investment to ensure that all parties had ‘skin in the game’.
“This, combined with the synergies amongst advisers, ensured that there was no ‘deal fatigue’ at any point, despite the deal being live for more than a year and had to face significant regulatory delays. The transaction required an approval from the antitrust regulator viz the CCI (Competition Commission of India – the antitrust watchdog). By the time the transaction documents got frozen, there was a vacancy in the CCI, which meant the quorum could not be constituted amongst the CCI members to pass a ‘combination’ order. This led to a delay of three months in closing the deal, which has been in the making for more than a year.”
Based in New York, KKR is a global investment firm with more than USD500 billion in assets under management, which include significant investments in India’s renewable energy sector. HFE Group focuses on clean energy, operates internationally and includes investors such as IFC (World Bank) and Masdar.
HFE will use this investment to expand its capabilities in solar, wind, battery storage and green hydrogen, and to enter new markets in India. This investment leverages KKR’s expertise in India and renewable energy, supporting HFE’s role in helping companies decarbonise amid rising energy demands.
The current transaction also involved filing a merger notification with the CCI and obtaining approvals from the Reserve Bank of India.
