ESR, a Singapore-headquartered real asset owner and manager focused on logistics real estate and data centres, has signed an agreement to acquire 100% of Aquila Clean Energy APAC.
Aquila Clean Energy APAC is a clean energy platform that develops, owns, and operates solar, battery storage and wind assets across the region, from the Hamburg-based investment and industrial development company Aquila Group.
Aquila Clean Energy APAC holds a 1.6GW portfolio of operational, construction and advanced development assets across Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan.
Earlier this year, Aquila Clean Energy energised the 38MW Omeheu solar PV plant in New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty region in July 2026, its second operational solar asset in the country, alongside a wider 580MW New Zealand pipeline that includes onshore wind and battery storage assets still in development.
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ESR said the acquisition strengthens its capabilities in adjacent infrastructure for capital partners and customers, positioning the company across logistics real estate, data centres and renewable energy as demand for all three becomes increasingly interconnected.
Phil Pearce, president of ESR, said the acquisition reflects that convergence.
“As demand for logistics infrastructure, data centres, and power becomes increasingly interconnected, we see significant opportunities at the intersection of these sectors, with energy infrastructure becoming an increasingly compelling area for long-term capital deployment,” Pearce said.
Apurv Choudhary, group head of infrastructure at ESR, said the company intends to scale the platform while maintaining discipline on returns.
“Aquila Clean Energy APAC brings an experienced team and a high-quality and diversified renewables portfolio across key Asia-Pacific markets, which is strategically adjacent to ESR’s footprint,” Choudhary said.
“We intend to significantly scale the Aquila Clean Energy platform while maintaining a strong focus on returns and execution discipline.”
Roman Rosslenbroich, CEO and co-founder of Aquila Group, said the sale reflected ESR’s standing in the region.
“That ESR, one of the leading real asset owners in the region, has chosen to acquire this platform is a strong recognition of Aquila Group’s ability to attract talented management teams and build category-leading industrial platforms,” Rosslenbroich said.
Completion of the transaction is expected by the first quarter of 2027, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.
The acquisition comes as Asia-Pacific battery storage developers navigate a market that has grown rapidly but is now testing investor expectations around near-term returns.
Aquila Clean Energy APAC’s general manager of energy markets, Thomas Schmitz, told the Battery Asset Management Summit Australia 2026 last month that battery storage revenues in Australia’s National Electricity Market (NEM) had narrowed as arbitrage spreads compressed, warning that developers who built financial models around anticipated coal plant closures were now absorbing the consequences of those closures being delayed.
Schmitz argued the underlying issue lies in project finance structures that assume battery storage will behave like a stable infrastructure asset, when its revenue profile more closely resembles that of a peaking plant.
Against that backdrop, the ESR-Aquila deal fits a broader pattern of larger, diversified real asset managers absorbing specialist renewable energy platforms, bringing balance-sheet scale and adjacent infrastructure demand, from data centres in particular, to developers whose standalone project economics have become harder to underwrite on merchant revenue alone.
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