$40m blows in

Age
Friday 19/12/2008 Page: 3

Babcock and Brown has agreed to cut Babcock and Brown Wind Partners loose for a $40 million price, further unravelling its system of providing management to its funds in exchange for a fee. The payment consists of $35 million upfront and $5 million to be paid to Babcock next year. Babcock and Brown Wind is the latest of the satellites to be successfully cut free from the infrastructure fund, which has seen its share price tumble more than 99 per cent in 2008.

Investors were pleased that Babcock and Brown Wind had finally been released from the shackles, its shares soaring 13.6 per cent, or 12t to $1. Babcock's were unchanged at 15.50. Babcock and Brown Wind is in the process of completing six wind farms in the US - taking the number of wind farms it operates to 26 in North America.

Babcock and Brown chief executive Michael Larkin said the wind fund would continue to expand with the "political and economic growth drivers behind wind energy remaining strong". "Babcock and Brown is a world leader in the development and operation of wind energy projects and we remain fully committed to both our operational projects and our significant pipeline of wind developments in North America, Europe and Australia including our offshore wind pipeline," he said.