The consortium will acquire 49% stake in the assets Brookfield Renewable and Invenergy

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KHNP consortium to acquire stake in US wind energy assets. (Credit: S. Hermann & F. Richter from Pixabay.)

A Korean consortium consisting of Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Korea Electricity Power (KEPCO), has agreed to acquire a significant equity stake in a 852MW portfolio of US wind assets.

The other Korean infrastructure investors in the consortium include Alpha Asset Management (Alpha), Sprott Korea Investment (Sprott), Hana Financial Investment (HANA) and Korea Investment & Securities (KIS).

The consortium has signed definitive agreements with Brookfield Renewable and Invenergy to acquire a 49.9% equity interest in four operating wind assets for an implied aggregate enterprise value of about $1.5bn.

The portfolio consists of the 218MW Bishop Hill and 226MW California Ridge wind farms in Illinois, as well as the 201MW Prairie Breeze wind farm in Nebraska and the 207MW Rattlesnake wind facility in Texas.

The power plants have long term service agreements with General Electric International, which will be responsible to provide operations and maintenance along with other balance of plant services.

The deal is expected to be closed in the fourth quarter of the year

Alpha CEO Joonhyuk Choi said: “this is a success story for Korea and the Consortium. This landmark Korean transaction is one of the first major investments made by Korean infrastructure investors since COVID-19 and will be the largest ever renewable energy acquisition completed globally by Korean investors.”

For the deal, CIBC Capital Markets acted as exclusive financial advisor and Lee & Ko and White & Case serves as legal counsel to the Consortium.

Subject to satisfaction of customary closing conditions, the acquisition is expected to be concluded in the fourth quarter of the year.

Upon completion of the transaction, Brookfield will own a 50.1% equity interest in the portfolio.

In November last year, KEPCO and Sprott Korea, a fund manager, have acquired a 49% stake in three Mexican solar plants totalling 370MW from Canadian Solar.