Mercom Capital Group has released its report on funding and merger and acquisition (M&A) activity for the wind sector during the second quarter of 2013. Wind venture capital (VC) funding picked up significantly this quarter amounting to US$ 210 million with the help of some large deals going to project developers in India compared to just US$ 16 million last quarter.
ReNew Power, an Indian wind project developer, attracted US$ 135 million from Goldman Sachs. NSL Renewable Power, also a project developer from India, received US$ 60 million in funding from multiple investors. In two smaller funding deals, IDEOL, a designer and installer of foundations for offshore wind projects, raised US$ 9.1 million, and US$ 6.2 million was received by ROMO Wind.
Announced large-scale project funding in Q2 2013 totalled US$ 3.2 billion in 24 deals compared to US$ 6.2 billion in 29 deals in Q1 2013. There were a total of 42 investors that participated in project funding deals this quarter. There were six M&A transactions in Q2 2013, amounting to US$ 328 million.
The top M&A transaction this quarter was the acquisition of Salus Fundos de Investimento em Participacoes (Salus) by Copel for approximately US$ 128 million. PNE WIND purchased a 54 per cent share in WKN from former shareholder Volker Friedrichsen Beteiligungs for approximately US$ 122 million. Aksa Energy acquired 93 per cent stake in Kapidag Ruzgar Enerjisi Elektrik Uretim for approximately US$ 67 million. Marmen acquired a wind tower plant from Broadwind Energy for approximately US$ 11.7 million. Makani Power was acquired by Google for an undisclosed amount reportedly for its secret Google X skunkworks lab and Urban Wind acquired Myriad Wind for an undisclosed amount.
There was significant project acquisition activity this quarter. Thirty-six project acquisitions took place in Q2 2013. There have been 53 project acquisitions year-to-date (YTD) compared to 72 in all of last year. The largest project acquisition by amount was PG&E’s acquisition of Puget Sound Energy’s 267MW Lower Snake River Phase II Wind Project for US$ 535 million, followed by Scottish and Southern Energy’s acquisition of the 99MW Dunmaglass Wind Project from Renewable Energy Systems for US$ 305 million. Palisade Investment Partners and Northleaf Capital Partners acquired 75 per cent of the 111MW Waterloo Wind Project from EnergyAustralia for US$ 227 million. Romania’s Lukerg Renew acquired the 70MW Gebeleisis Wind Project from Vestas for US$ 144 million while SE, a Danish energy company, and Denmark’s Pension Fund Administrator (PFA) acquired the Danish onshore wind business (196W) of DONG Energy for US$ 133 million. Of the disclosed transactions in Q2 2013, there were 15 investment funds that acquired wind projects, eight project developers, six independent producers, and four utilities.
