Buyers line up for wind farm

Australian
Tuesday 21/9/2010 Page: 22

ONE of Australia's biggest wind farms, the 80-MW Emu Downs project in Western Australia, is generating strong interest from potential buyers after being put up for sale following the collapse of Ric Stowe's Griffin Group. The state-of-the-art wind farm expected to fetch more than $200 million is owned by a 50-50 joint venture between Mr Stowe's Griffin Energy and the Queensland government owned Stanwell Corporation. Sources said last night the sale had attracted interest from the "usual suspects" after first-round indicative bids closed last Friday.

The companies considered most likely to bid include AGL Energy, Origin Energy, Transfield Services Infrastructure Fund and Infigen Energy, formerly known as Babcock 8, Brown Wind Partners. The WA government-owned electricity generator Verve Energy is believed to have stayed out of the bidding process. The sale of Emu Downs is being conducted separately to the sale of Griffin's coal mining and power generation businesses in WA, believed to be saddled with about $2 billion in debt.

Up to 40 prospective buyers for those assets including from India, China and Japan will submit offers next week and administrators hope to finalise the sale by the end of the year. A creditors' meeting to be held in February next year is expected to sign off on the sale. Mr Stowe is believed to be keen to buy back his empire, which went into administration in January, but that is considered an unlikely prospect. The Emu Downs wind farm, about 200km north of Perth, produces enough electricity to power more than 50,000 homes a year and the capacity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 280,000 tonnes annually.

The electricity produced from Emu Downs is purchased by WA government-owned retailer Synergy Energy, whose customers include the state's desalination plant. An industry source familiar with Emu Downs, which opened in 2006, said the asset was considered first class. The returns generated would be considered attractive to funds and energy companies, while the sales contract with Synergy Energy would provide comfort to a buyer. The sale is being handled by the Sydney offices of Royal Bank of Scotland and Royal Bank of Canada.