Enel bought back Renewable Energy spin off for $3.3 billion to be the World's First Behemoth Green Utility

Enel SpA bought back Wednesday its renewable energy spin off Enel Green Power for 3.1 billion euro, or $3.3 billion, to speed up its growth in the renewable energy.

Bloomberg reported that Enel SpA Chief Executive Officer Francesco Starace said the move will let them create the biggest renewable energy company in the world. The company is presently the biggest utility in Italy and one of the biggest in Europe. In 2010, the company spun off a renewable business called Enel Green Power SpA. It grew faster than its funding, pushing the parent company to reintegrate it.

According to Green Tech Media, Enel earned 2.26 billion euros when it first sold stocks from Enel Green Power to the public in 2010. Now, it offered 0.486 of its stock for each share of its renewable spin off to buy back the 30 percent of the company that it no longer owns. This will help the company propel its green power unit to further heights as the performance of renewable companies in the stock market is sluggish.  

"The utilities sector is facing a very fast pace of change, and the flexibility inherent in Enel's business model allows us to position ourselves accordingly," Starace said in a report by E & E Publishing. "Enel Green Power is one of the growth engines of the Enel Group."

Besides Enel SpA, other companies have also done the same strategies a few years ago. Utilities Iberfrola SA and Electricite de France also bought back shares of their renewable energy units in 2011. Terra Firma Capital Partners has just bought back shares it no longer own from its Infinis Energy Plc.

Renewable energy has matured in just a decade as prices for solar panel and wind turbines went down significantly. According to the International Energy Agency, renewable energy will be the biggest source of new power generation in the world five years from now.