(Bloomberg) -- RWE AG said a $6.8 billion deal to buy renewables assets in the US won’t mean less spending at home in Europe.

Germany’s largest utility announced one of the biggest-ever green deals in the US over the weekend, sparking criticism it should be focusing instead at home at a time when the region is trying to ensure energy availability amid the biggest crisis in decades.

“We have made very clear that this transaction won’t lead to any scale down in investment in Europe,” Chief Executive Officer Markus Krebber said on a call with reporters. “We are accelerating everything that is needed, we have not said no to any investment in Europe in the last five years.”

The criticism has mainly come from an activist investor Benedikt Kormaier, who owns about 1 million RWE shares. Krebber said he didn’t understand what Kormaier wanted to achieve.

The deal will almost double RWE’s renewables portfolio in the US to more than 7 gigawatts. The company has been benefiting from the market turmoil in Europe’s power and gas markets since Russia started its war on Ukraine. RWE has raised its earnings outlook for this year and earmarked up to 15 billion euros ($14.7 billion) for investment in America.

“It’s missing the point, why shouldn’t we as an international company invest full steam in Europe and in the US,” Krebber said. 

The issue holding back European projects is slow planning and permitting, and renumeration frameworks, issues governments are trying to address, he said.

RWE was advised by Goldman Sachs Group Inc on the transaction, and by Deutsche Bank AG for the structuring of a convertible bond sold to the Qatar Investment Authority as part of the deal.

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