Shortlisted parties exit John Laing race

The bidders are now vying for a smaller portfolio after John Laing opted to exclude solar assets in its Australian business. Picture: AFP

Palisade Investment Partners remains in the mix to buy Engie’s Willogoleche Wind Farm despite leaving the race to acquire John Laing’s Australian renewable assets with First State Super.

Parties were shortlisted on Tuesday for the wind energy projects on offer by John Laing, but Palisade did not go through to then next round.

However, the Engie sales process for its Willogoleche Wind Farm in South Australia remains in the second stage, with Palisade remaining in the mix, along with the Dutch Infrastructure Fund and ICG.

The departure of the Palisade, which was advised by RBC and Grant Samuel, from the John Laing competition, is understood to have come after it was unprepared to pay up for the assets on offer due to a less upbeat view on power prices compared to the vendor.

Working on the John Laing sales process is Macquarie Capital.

Other groups earlier said to be in the mix have been First Sentier Investors, advised by JPMorgan, ICG, Neoen and PwC-advised Federation Asset Management, which already owns the Kiata Wind Farm in Victoria with John Laing through its Windlab business.

Parties were asked to resubmit their first-round bids by July 24 after the nature of the portfolio on offer was recut and the suitors initially expected to hear if they had made the second round of the competition last week.

The bidders are now vying for a smaller portfolio after John Laing opted to exclude solar assets in its Australian business, including the Sunraysia Solar Farm and the Finley solar project, both in NSW.

It means that any acquirer would now need to write a cheque for at least $250m for the wind farm portfolio — about half the earlier estimated amount when the solar projects were also on offer.

First round bids were initially due at the beginning of July before solar assets were excluded.

Assets on offer are the Cherry Tree and Kiata wind farms in Victoria, Hornsdale wind farm in South Australia and Granville Wind Farm in Tasmania.

The solar assets excluded from the process earlier on were the Finley solar project and Sunraysia Solar Farm in NSW.

Palisade already has pre-emptive rights on one of the assets.

First State Super and Palisade were earlier considered to be the front runners to buy the asset, and some expected the contest to be a repeat of the one for the Snow Town 2 wind farm competition, where Palisade went head to head with First Sentier to buy the asset for $1bn.

Palisade is an owner in the Sunshine Coast Airport and is on track to provide a $290m payment to fund a runway upgrade for the asset in June 2022, despite COVID-19 disruptions.