PE firm Bridgepoint to acquire wind farms from Spain’s ACS for $851 million

Europe-focused private equity firm Bridgepoint yesterday agreed to acquire a portfolio of wind energy assets from Spanish construction conglomerate Auxiliar de Construcción y Servicios (ACS) in a transaction that values the assets at €596.5 million (($851 million).

Making its first investment in renewable energy assets since 1994, Bridgepoint is acquiring a portfolio of 11 wind farms in Castilla Leon, the largest independent platform of wind assets in Spain with 443 MW of installed capacity.

Renewable energy has now entered the radar of private equity firms with the Blackstone Group last week investing €2.5 billion ($3.5 billion) into the construction of the €1.2 billion Meerwind project, Germany's biggest ever offshore wind farms. (See: Blackstone Group to invest $3.5-bn in Germany's Meerwind offshore wind farms)

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR), the world's biggest private equity group, made its first European renewable energy investment in June 2011 by forming an equal joint venture with Italian power company Sorgenia to build wind farms in France.

It teamed up last month with German reinsurer, Munich Re to acquire a 49-per cent stake in the operating assets of Grupo T-Solar, Europe's largest solar photovoltaic (PV) power generator

In May 2004, London-based Bridgepoint had invested in CESA, a Spanish wind farm developer and operator, but subsequently exited the business in 2006 when CESA was acquired by Acciona in a transaction valued at €1.47 billion.