GFG Alliance, Ignis agree to develop renewable energy projects

By Eric Onstad

LONDON (Reuters) - Privately-held companies GFG Alliance and Ignis signed a deal on Thursday to develop renewable energy projects in Spain to supply power to potential GFG metals plants, the firms said.

British-based conglomerate GFG, which holds the family operations of commodities tycoon Sanjeev Gupta, has no industrial assets in Spain, but Aloca Corp <AA.N> has said it held talks with GFG on its Spanish aluminium smelters.

Under the agreement, Spain's Ignis and GFG's energy arm SIMEC will invest in wind and solar facilities with a total capacity of 1.2 gigawatts (GW) of electricity, a joint statement said.

The joint venture is focused on supporting GFG's goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2030 and its plan for growth in Spain in energy intensive industries, such as its aluminium business Alvance and steel unit Liberty Steel.

"We've spent a lot of time in Spain looking at deals," said Jay Hambro, chief investment officer of the GFG Alliance.

Alcoa said on Tuesday that a consultation process with workers had failed to reach an agreement on the fate of its loss-making San Ciprián aluminium plant in Spain, which has annual capacity of 228,000 tonnes.

In the statement, Alcoa said it had failed to agree terms with GFG Alliance on the potential sale of the plant.

Hambro decline to comment on whether talks were continuing with Alcoa or on details of steel assets it aimed to buy in Spain.

Last month, an executive of Paris-headquartered Alvance said it was on the lookout for takeovers to triple production and create a vertically-integrated group.

Ignis has 400 MW of energy assets and a portfolio of over 10,000 MW of renewable energy development projects in Spain.

GFG's SIMEC has 600 megawatts of existing capacity and is developing a further 2 GW of renewable energy plants, not including the Spanish deal.

(Reporting by Eric Onstad; editing by Barbara Lewis)