Italian oil major Eni has sold a 20% stake in its renewables arm, Plenitude, to global investment manager Ares Management Corporation for approximately €2 billion.
Valuing Plenitude at around €10 billion (US$11.4 billion), the deal is part of Eni’s plans to increase external investment in its “satellite” companies. The company signed the agreement with an affiliate of Ares Management Corporation, Ares Management Alternative Credit.
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Francesco Gattei, chief transition and financial officer at Eni, said: “Plenitude is one of our satellite companies, established just a few years ago to maximise the value of our high-potential assets, continuously create value, and contribute towards our net-zero Scope 3 emissions reduction targets.
“Today, we welcome a new international leading partner who will support Plenitude in its significant future growth.”
Plenitude said it has 4.1GW of renewable energy capacity installed as of March 2025. The company has invested in and constructed hundreds of megawatts of solar PV capacity, with particular focus on Spain, Italy and the US.
In January, Plenitude acquired a 49% minority stake in the 300MW Sandrini solar-plus-storage project portfolio in California, owned by EDP Renewables North America. It also built a 200MW/400MWh battery energy storage system in Texas, construction of which was completed in January. In early 2024, it acquired a majority stake in a 272MW solar PV portfolio from EDP, comprising two projects in Ohio and one in Texas.
In Spain, the company has planned and begun construction on over 1GW of solar PV capacity in the last year, most notably inking an agreement with Avintia Energia to build an 850MW PV portfolio across central and southern Spain.
Ares Management Corporation has already invested into the solar PV sector. In October 2021 it acquired a majority stake in US developer Apex Clean Energy, and in 2022 it made a US$200 million investment in US commercial & industrial PV developer DSD Renewables.
Eni is one of the 20 largest oil and gas producers in the world. Analysis from 2024 by environmental research firm Reclaim Finance said that its investment strategy “increasingly prioritises the oil and gas sector and redistribution to shareholders, to the detriment of climate solutions.”
The report claimed that for every euro invested in Plenitude, Eni invested 7.7 euros in oil and gas.
Reclaim Finance also claimed that Eni has backtracked on its renewable energy investment plans, reducing its annual capital expenditure plans for renewables by 22%. Other fossil fuel majors have also rolled back their involvement in renewables, perhaps most notably bp, which announced plans in February to divest its interests in its solar development firm, Lightsource bp.
