A judge has awarded the assets of Spanish engineering and energy group Abengoa, which was in bankruptcy proceedings, to Spanish renewable energy company Cox Energy, a court document showed Tuesday.

Cox Energy, a solar photovoltaic company founded in 2014, submitted a bid that valued Abengoa at €564 million ($618 million), which prevailed over several full and partial bids, the document said.

Abengoa has been in insolvency proceedings since June 2022, after a €6 billion debt restructuring process fell apart when Spain rejected an aid package that would have given it more time to evaluate a bid from private equity firm TerraMar Capital LLC.

The Seville-based group took on considerable debt for more than a decade to finance an aggressive expansion into clean energy beyond its traditional infrastructure projects. It delisted from the stock exchange in September 2022, after suspending trading for more than two years due to its debt problems.

In 2016, Abengoa had already avoided bankruptcy by reaching a €9 billion debt refinancing agreement, which ceded control of the company to creditors.

Cox Energy's offer includes €206 million of Abengoa's outstanding project debt and guarantees, as well as another €252 million in project finance debt, the company said in a statement.

The judge pointed out that the newly founded Cox Energy is a small company whose business is complementary to Abengoa's, having committed to maintain its operations and workforce. Abengoa has more than 9,000 employees worldwide.

The company advanced €2.5 million in February to pay arrears in Abengoa's workers' salaries.

Cox Energy, which has projects in Mexico, Chile, Panama, Colombia and Spain and a portfolio potentially capable of generating more than 5,000 megawatts, beat bids from Ultramar Energy Limited, Terramar/Nox Engineering and Urbas, as well as some partial bids such as those submitted by Acciona or Elecnor, according to the court document.

(1 dollar = 0.9119 euros)

(Reporting by Emma Pinedo; editing by David Latona and Mark Potter; edited in Spanish by Darío Fernández)