Zorlu Energy sells wind energy company to grow with strong capital structure

Aiming to enter the new period with a stronger capital structure, Zorlu Energy is selling the shares of Zorlu Wind Energy Electricity Generation Inc., which is in its portfolio, to Akfen Renewable Energy in order to create additional capital within the scope of its growth strategy.

Zorlu Energy CEO Sinan Ak said, "We care about our market value in the capital markets.Our main goal in the coming period is to increase our company value. In line with our growth strategy, we aim for new investments with the capital we will obtain from this sale in order to further expand our portfolio. We will continue to evaluate all opportunities in renewable energy projects, including our projects that we have spread internationally in the field of wind energy and are highly experienced, and we will continue to work to strengthen our capital structure."

Zorlu Energy, which wants to enter the new period stronger by evaluating its assets efficiently, sells 100% of the shares of Zorlu Rüzgar Enerji Elektrik Üretimi AŞ, which owns Sarıtepe and Demirciler RES, to Akfen Renewable Energy AŞ. Zorlu Energy will continue to operate the Gökçedağ Power Plant, which has an installed capacity of 135 MW, and will evaluate new investment opportunities.    

The goal is to grow with new investments and increase market value

Sinan Ak, who made a statement on the subject, stated that they aim to realize a significant capital transformation with the sale transaction and that they have no decision to strategically leave the field of RES development and operation, and that they will be able to evaluate wind energy-based electricity generation projects in the coming period.

Ak said, "With this sale, we are making our capital structure even stronger. Within the scope of our growth strategy, we provide the recycling of capital to add value to our company and prepare for stronger investments. In 2019, we invested 1 billion Turkish Liras only in electricity distribution. At home and abroad; We will continue our geothermal, wind and solar investments without slowing down. In addition to our wind power plant already in Pakistan, we are accelerating our solar power plant investment and continue our work to establish a solar power plant in Palestine."

Recalling Zorlu Energy's strong value in the capital markets, Ak explained that they will continue to work to grow further and that options such as secondary public offerings are also on the agenda. Emphasizing that their main goal is to increase the value of the company, Ak said, "In order to continue our rise in the environmental and social investment class, we continue to work within the scope of both sustainability and carbon footprint in order to increase our ESG (Environment Social Governance) rating. In addition, we have a growth target in the field of electric vehicle charging stations and electric vehicle sharing platform."

Zorlu Energy's after-sales production portfolio will include 7 hydroelectric, 1 wind, 4 geothermal and 3 natural gas power plants in Turkey and 1 wind power plant in Pakistan and 3 natural gas plants in Israel abroad. While 61 percent of the company's total installed power, which has a total size of 1,006 MW, is based on renewable resources, 85 percent of its installed power in Turkey consists of renewable energy.