Brookfield To Buy BGE Wind Portfolio, Centrica To Buy Utility Supply Business

(RTTNews) - Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners L.P. (BEP, BEP_UN.TO) Tuesday announced an agreement to acquire the wind portfolio of Bord Gais Energy or BGE for a total enterprise value of up to 700 million euros or $960 million, subject to customary closing adjustments.

The transaction with Brookfield Renewable is being completed as a sale by the Republic of Ireland-owned Bord Gais Eireann of all of its energy business to a consortium that also includes Centrica Plc. (CNA.L) and iCON Infrastructure, who will acquire the non-wind assets of BGE.

The purchase price is subject to customary closing adjustments and approximates 495 million euros ($680 million), net of assumed long-term non-recourse debt and certain deferred contingent consideration.

Brookfield Renewable will fund the transaction with its institutional partners and maintain an economic interest in the portfolio of approximately 40 percent.

The BGE wind portfolio comprises 321 MW of operating wind capacity across 17 wind projects in eight counties in Ireland and Northern Ireland. The portfolio represents 15 percent of the installed wind capacity in Ireland, and includes some of the strongest onshore wind resources in Europe.

Centrica said in a separate statement that the company, together with Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners L.P. and iCON Infrastructure Partners II, L.P. has agreed to acquire BGE, the vertically integrated Irish energy business from Bord Gáis Éireann, the state owned energy company, for 1.1 billion euros or 920 million pounds. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2014.

Centrica will acquire BGE's gas and electricity supply business in Ireland and the Whitegate gas-fired power station, which make up 210 million euros of the total enterprise value as at the effective date of December 31, 2013.

iCON Infrastructure Partners II, L.P. will acquire BGE's firmus energy supply and regulated gas distribution assets in Northern Ireland and Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners L.P. will acquire BGE's renewable generation assets, it added.