Armed with a counter offer, country's largest wind energy company Suzlon Energy is confident to acquire the German firm REpower but will refrain from getting into a bidding war if that hurts the interest of its shareholders.

Tulsi Tanti, chairman and managing director of Suzlon Energy, told Business Standard,  "If the bidding becomes unviable, we will have to withdraw. But we are confident of winning the bid."

Tanti, however, refused to divulge how much more Suzlon was willing to bid for REpower. On February 9, Suzlon had made a counter bid of euro126 per share to Areva's bid of 105 a share for REpower. REpower is Germany's third largest wind turbine maker after Vestas and Enercon.

The Suzlon bid puts the valuation of REpower at $1.3 billion. Suzlon's bid also has the support of one of REpower's largest shareholders, the Portuguese Martifer group. But the single largest block of shares in REpower is held by Areva.

The REpower management had issued a statement supporting the Areva bid after it had announced its intention to take over management control of the company on February 5, saying Areva offered the best synergy for the German turbine maker.

Tanti revealed that Suzlon had been eyeing REpower for the last two years.