|
Jan. 11, 2011 - Mercom Capital Group, llc, a
global clean energy communications and consulting firm, today released its
annual and fourth quarter funding and merger and acquisition (M&A) activity
report for the wind sector in 2011.
In 2011, venture capital
(VC) funding for wind energy continued to increase past previous years,
totaling $369 million in 14 deals, compared to
$277 million in 11 deals in 2010, and $198 million in 20 deals in 2009. Wind
power start-up ReNew Wind Power’s $202 million raise was the top VC funding
deal. Boulder Wind Power and Wind Energy Direct were second and third highest,
with $35 million and $29 million raised respectively.
Project-specific
funding also was higher than previous years, reaching nearly $11 billion - $1.6
billion more than in 2010. Offshore wind projects represented $3.4 billion in
five deals. Onshore wind raised $7.5 billion in 46 deals. The top project in
2011 was the 400 megawatt (MW) Global Tech I offshore wind project in Germany,
which raised $1.5 billion. Other top project deals were WindMW’s Meerwind 288MW
wind farm, which raised $1.2 billion, and the 272MW Canadian wind farm being developed by
Boralex, Gaz Metro and Valener’s Selgneurie de Beaupre, which raised $713
million.
The United States saw the
most VC funding deals in terms of companies ($294.7 million in nine deals) and
projects ($2.9 billion in 19 deals). Germany was a close second in investment
with $2.8 billion in large-scale project funding, followed by Canada with $1.1
billion. The most active project investor was the European Investment Bank,
which was involved in eight transactions. The International Finance Corporation
had seven transactions, and four other investors had four transactions each.
Debt funding was dominated
by China, which accounted for $6.8 billion of the $11 billion announced in
2011. Denmark and Spain announced $1.9 billion and $1.7 billion in debt
respectively. The United States was fifth overall with $201 million. The single largest deal was the $5 billion
credit facility issued to Guandong Ming Yang Wind Power Industry Group Co. by
the China Development bank.
M&A
activity amounted to $1.7 billion in 17 deals, the largest being the $724
million acquisition of wind gear maker Hansen Transmissions, a subsidiary of
Suzlon, by ZF Friedrichshafen. The $596 million acquisition of Brazilian wind
power operator Jantus by CPFL Energia was the second largest deal of 2011. Wind
component companies accounted for $1 billion
and wind downstream companies for $700 million in 2011 M&A activity.
There was also
significant wind project M&A activity with $4 billion transacted in 61
deals. Top deals were the acquisition of 50 percent of DONG Energy’s Anholt
offshore wind farm by a consortium of Pension Danmark and PKA for $1.1 billion,
and the acquisition of 11 wind farms from Auxiliar de Construccion y Servicios
by Bridgepoint for $850 million.
For a copy of Mercom’s Wind Funding and M&A 2011 Report and
other clean energy reports, visit: http://mercomcapital.com/cleanenergyreports.php.
|
