SPIC, one of China's top five power producers, did not disclose the value of the acquisition, but said it will fully own the Mexican company.

"The investment by SPIC in Zuma signifies our continuous commitment and support for clean and renewable power generation," Qian Zhimin, chairman of SPIC, said in a statement.

As of end-October, the Chinese state-backed power generator had installed electricity generation capacity of 165 gigawatts (GW), of which 53.3% comes from non-coal energy sources.

Zuma Energia has installed capacity of 818 megawatts from two solar plants in Sonora and Chihuahua and two wind farms in Tamaulipas and Oaxaca.

"We have built a robust platform to look for multiple avenues of regional growth and the support of SPIC will allow us to continue our mission of making a significant contribution to a global clean energy system," Adrian Katzew, Chief Executive Officer of Zuma, said in a statement.

The deal would help SPIC to meet its 2020 target of having 8 GW of overseas power generation capacity. By March, it had installed 5.21 GW outside China and had 1.47 GW projects under construction.

The Zuma acquisition was made through SPIC's Hong Kong-based subsidiary, China Power International Holding Ltd (CPIH).

CPIH in September signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Norwegian energy firm Equinor to cooperate in offshore wind development in China and Europe.

(Reporting by Muyu Xu in Beijing and Florence Tan in Singapore; Editing by Barbara Lewis and David Evans)