Norton Rose Fulbright has advised Sydney-based OneWind Australia, a Denham Capital-backed company, on the sale of its late-stage development wind projects in Australia to Singapore-based independent power producer Nexif Energy, which is another Denham-backed company.
The sale includes:
* the Lincoln Gap project in South Australia, scheduled to have 59 turbines and which could collectively generate between 150 MW and 177 MW;
* the Glen Innes project in NSW, scheduled to be a 75 MW wind farm; and
* a 32 per cent share in RPVD Development Pty Ltd, which owns the Walkaway II wind and solar projects in Western Australia.
Nexif has recently confirmed it has entered into contracts with Senvion Gmbh of Germany to engineer, supply and construct Nexif’s two new wind generation projects in Australia. Since closing on the acquisition, Nexif has made significant strides in its growth plans for Australia.
Matthew Bartley, Nexif founder and co-CEO commented:
“We are proud to announce this major milestone for our Australian wind farm projects and we are looking forward to working with Senvion and starting construction in the next few months. The company kicked off early works at the Glen Innes site in early January 2017 and has also begun offering market-based LGC and energy contracts to counterparties and customers.”
Surender Singh, fellow founder and co-CEO commented:
“Representing an investment of over $600 million when constructed, our wind farm projects in Australia form a major part of our growth plans. We look forward to building a portfolio of complementary power generation projects in Australia.”
OneWind was formed in 2013 after Denham agreed to invest $75 million of equity in a 1 GW portfolio of Australian wind power projects. Denham co-invested with the portfolio’s other sponsors, Enersis Australia, National Power and Kato Capital, to create OneWind. In August 2016, Denham committed $200 million to Nexif.
Saurabh Anand, director at Denham Capital, commented:
"To accelerate development of our OneWind Australia projects Lincoln Gap and Glen Innes, we have tasked Nexif to undertake management of the projects, expanding the execution capabilities of the existing OneWind Australia team. Nexif is well-located geographically to bring expertise and efficiency to the projects. We're excited about this transition and the value the projects will bring to Australia in the near future, particularly with the recent positive changes in the Australian power renewable market."
Norton Rose Fulbright partner Ben Smits, who led the deal, commented:
“We are delighted to act for OneWind Australia on this strategic divestment. The Australian power renewable market is experiencing unprecedented change, and it is an honour to work side-by-side key industry players such as Denham and Nexif as they play a fundamental role in transitioning towards cleaner power sources.”
Ben was assisted by Norton Rose Fulbright global head of energy, Simon Currie, as well as associates Mitchell Kelly (Corporate) and Ashika Binodan (Corporate).
