KKR Infrastructure’s ContourGlobal is advancing to the second stage in the sale of Canadian pension fund-backed renewable energy company Cubico Sustainable Investments, three sources familiar told Infralogic.

London-headquartered independent power producer Cubico, which is owned by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) and Public Sector Pension (PSP) Investment Board, expects to take binding offers over the next month, they said. Spanish investment manager Qualitas Energy is also likely to have made it to in the second round, two of the sources noted.

ContourGlobal, which has ambitious plans to grow in the renewables sector and plans to phase-out coal power generation by 2027, has been actively deploying capital in the renewables sector, particularly the Americas. The company, which already has assets in Italy, Spain, Austria, the and the Netherlands, is now looking to expand its presence in the UK and Europe, one source said.

Non-binding offers were submitted late January, with players such as Enel also vying for Cubico, which owns a global portfolio of over 3.2 GW in operation and construction and 17 GW pipeline across markets including Europe, the Americas and Australia.

The owners of Cubico – OTPP and PSP – are seeking a complete exit from the business and started approaching a select group of investors in August last year. The sale is now being run by Bank of America and CIBC.

Some of the investors were keen to make offers only for parts of the business, but OTPP and PSP have stood firm on selling the entire business, sources noted.

An investor buying the whole of Cubico could sell the parts it regards as non-core, particularly its operations in South America, some industry sources have said.

Cubico, which posted USD 625m of EBITDA in 2023, could fetch an enterprise value of around USD 6bn, sources estimated, requiring deep-pocketed buyers.

The company was set up in 2015 and before 2020 started with greenfield developments, initially in Australia and later in other markets, particularly in the US and Colombia.

Cubico has also been shuffling its portfolio of assets over the past years, agreeing in December 2023 to sell a portfolio of solar PV assets in Portugal to JP Morgan Asset Management-backed independent power producer Sonnedix, and in September 2023 announcing that it had completed the acquisition of three operational renewable generation projects in Uruguay from Brookfield.

Last year Cubico said it will develop 1 GW of battery storage projects in Italy through a new joint venture with Italian battery storage developer Storaltil and completed the acquisition of at least 12 solar and hybrid projects across seven states in Mexico, adding 1.6 GW of generation capacity.

In 2024, it took control of Peel Cubico Renewables, a JV it set up with UK infrastructure investor Peel NRE. The acquisition added 350 MW of development projects, including onshore wind and solar parks, to Cubico’s pipeline in addition to a 1.7 GW feasibility pipeline across England and Scotland.

Cubico, PSP Invest, KKR and Bank of America declined to comment while OTPP, Qualitas and CIBC did not respond on queries for the article.