Eneos to buy Japan Renewable Energy for $1.8 billion

Eneos Holdings Inc, Japan's biggest refiner, plans to buy Japan Renewable Energy for about 200 billion yen ($1.8 billion) from Goldman Sachs and Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC.

The deal would mark the first major purchase of a renewables company by a top Japanese oil company, the Nikkei said, as Eneos looks to shift away from fossil fuels.

Founded in 2012, Japan Renewable Energy develops and builds renewable energy assets and has 419 megawatts of solar, onshore wind and biomass capacity in operation, with a further 410 MW under construction.

An Eneos spokesperson said the company was considering various options to expand its renewable energy business but that nothing had been decided. A Goldman Sachs spokesperson declined to comment.

Like overseas counterparts including Royal Dutch Shell Japan's oil companies are shifting into new areas, especially after Tokyo stepped-up commitments on cutting atmosphere heating emissions along with other countries.

Japan Renewable's website has few financial details but, with its comparatively small capacity, any acquisition is unlikely to make much of an immediate contribution to Eneos' typical annual sales of around 10 trillion yen ($90 billion).