A sale of the $900m-plus Stockyard Hill development by windmill turbine manufacturer Goldwind is expected to be finalised by the middle of next month, with Macquarie Group interests and its backers expected to buy the country’s largest wind farm.
Holding up the sale to Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets and the Qatar-based Nebras Power, which targets investments in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Latin America, is understood to be approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board.
The owners are expected to know by the middle of next month as to whether the consortium has FIRB clearance.
But it is understood that the deal to buy the asset has largely been reached. MIRA has been circling the infrastructure asset for almost a year and is working with the Doha-based Nebras, which is advised by HSBC.
The move by Macquarie interests to make the acquisition comes at a time the bank is planning a major push into infrastructure and renewable energy when it comes to deals, recently raising $1bn to help fund a pipeline of global deals. It joins other major global investors, including private equity funds, concentrating on the space as they look to put money to work in a low-interest-rate environment and as clean energy remains high up on the agenda.
KPMG is selling Stockyard Hill, which has a cost of $1.1bn to build and needs a $350m equity injection.
Located in Victoria, 35km west of Ballarat, it has approval for 149 turbines, providing up to 536MW of wind energy, and the right to develop the asset up on offer by Origin Energy in 2017.
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