Developing a Negotiation Framework for Post-Acquisition Operating Lease Agreement (OLA) Contract in Solar Energy Project: A Strategic Transition for Taeyang Energy

Taeyang Energy is a well-known Korean solar energy developer in Indonesia, faces the challenge while doing the business expansion with the M&A structure due to high dependency on Joey, the previous CEO, for their previous all-OLA contract negotiations. This study aims to understand the current negotiation process that is used by Joey and also to structure the negotiation framework for Taeyang Energy post-acquisition. This study implements the single method of qualitative approach by getting insight from interviews with Joey as Taeyang Energy’s previous CEO and also some OLA contract practitioners on the solar energy business. The qualitative findings reveal some of the negotiation processes in dealing with the OLA contract negotiation. The results indicate that Joey has specific negotiation stages for the OLA contract negotiation at Taeyang Energy which consist of initial due diligence, commercial proposal submission, contract drafting and initial explanation, and request client’s feedback on the proposal. The 3D Negotiation offers a practical and comprehensive negotiation framework, considering three dimensions of negotiation: Setup, Deal Design, and Tactics that has been categorized based on the thematic analysis result of the interview excerpts. This study highlights the key success of OLA contract negotiation for Taeyang Energy and will drive the company’s sustainable growth and increase the independence of the new team for post-acquisition. However, the research also acknowledges limitations such as the effectiveness of this framework has not been tested yet. Future research direction is proposed to address the limitation such as measuring the success of the contract using the quantitative approach.