LONDON/NEW YORK, June 26 - Two Canadian pension funds

have halted a long-running auction for renewable energy

developer Cubico Sustainable Investments that they had hoped

could be valued at more than $6 billion, including debt, three

people familiar with the matter said.

The Montreal-based Public Sector Pension Investment Board

(PSP) and Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTPP) decided

to explore a sale of the company that operates wind and solar

farms across Europe, North and South America and Australia,

nearly two years ago, when low-carbon energy companies were

enjoying a period of rising valuations.

However, the offers made were not enough to persuade the

shareholders to agree to a sale, two of the people said. The

process was not expected to restart imminently, one of the

people and a third one said.

Some bidders valued Cubico at around 5 billion euros ($5.9

billion) including debt, two of the sources said. Spanish

infrastructure fund Qualitas Energy and KKR-backed power

producer ContourGlobal were among the parties interested, the

people said.

Cubico, PSP, Qualitas, ContourGlobal and OTPP declined to

comment. A representative for KKR had no immediate comment.

Some investor interest in the sector has waned, especially

in the United States, due in part to a rush for more power

sources, including polluting ones, to meet soaring power demand

for artificial intelligence projects, and Donald Trump's

continued support for fossil fuels on his return to office.

The owners originally expected the sale to fetch a

valuation, including debt, of around 10 times Cubico's 2023

earnings of $625 million before interest, tax, depreciation and

amortisation, Reuters reported previously.

The process had attracted interest from at least one

corporate utility as well as financial firms betting that clean

power companies would become more valuable as governments pushed

to reduce planet-warming emissions.

Bankers were hoping Trump's drive to loosen regulations

would drive a deals boom, but market volatility and geopolitical

concerns have hampered some activity so far.

Counting all its concentrated solar power and transmission

line technology, Cubico has a total 2.8 gigawatts of generation

capacity. It was formed in 2015 when the two funds partnered

with Banco Santander. They bought equal shares of the Spanish

bank's stake in 2016.

($1 = 0.8538 euros)