The talk in town is that Morgan Stanley, a US-based financial services company, has hired Citibank to find a buyer for its controlling share in clean energy company Continuum Green Energy (India) Pvt. Ltd.

Continuum has 807.4 megawatts (MW) of operational wind and solar assets and has a total capacity of 1.07 gigawatts (GW) in various stages of development.

North Haven Infrastructure Partners, a Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners-managed global infrastructure fund, invested $212.03 million in Continuum in 2012.

On the other hand, Morgan Stanley owns about 83 percent of Arvind Bansal and Vikash Saraf's sustainable energy platform, which they founded in 2009.

The proposed transaction comes as significant deals are returning to India's green energy industry, with private equity firm Actis Llp expressing interest in Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP's) Indian clean energy platform Vector Green Energy as the most recent example.

In addition, the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System of Canada recently announced plans to buy 19.4 percent of Azure Power Global Ltd for $219 million, while Thailand's PTT Group recently revealed plans to buy 41.6 percent of Avaada Energy Pvt. Ltd for $454 million.

Morgan Stanley's interest in Continuum Green Energy has been assigned to Citibank for sale.

The plans for the Continuum share sale have been in the works for quite some time.
Morgan Stanley's majority shareholding in Continuum Green Energy had piqued ReNew Power Ventures Pvt. Ltd's interest.

In the face of increased demand for electrical energy, buyers' interest in India's novice financial system continues to grow.

India runs the world's largest clean energy program, with an installed solar energy technological capability of 42.33 GW, 36.88 GW in the implementation stage, and 19.76 GW in the tendering stage.

On July 27, photovoltaic and wind technology reached an all-time high of 43.1GW, reaffirming India's push for environmentally friendly energy sources. Solar energy technology in the US is on the rise, rising 54 percent from 39.27 billion units (BUs) in 2018-19 to 60.40 BUs in 2020-21.

A slew of inexperienced vitality offers is on the table. Among the suitors for Warburg Pincus LLC majority stake in rooftop solar energy producer CleanMax Enviro Power Options Pvt. Ltd. are the promoters of Cleantech Photovoltaic Power, planning to sell their controlling stake in the green energy agency backed by Royal Dutch Shell, and Singaporean conglomerate Keppel Corp.

Furthermore, TPG Capital's The Rise Fund and Norway's state-owned Norfund recently announced $100 million and $25 million investments in Hyderabad-based Fourth Associate Power.