Germany’s BayWa Extends Wind Power Business to Austria, EEurope

Munich-based BayWa said it has acquired Ecowind, an Austrian company which develops and builds wind power projects in Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Croatia and Austria.

The seller is Austria's AAG Holding GmbH.

A share of 90% in Ecowind GmbH was sold to BayWa r.e., a wholly-owned unit of BayWa AG, for 4.6 million euro ($6.6 million), unencumbered by net financial debt, with retrospective effect as per June 30, 2011, BayWa said in a press release on Tuesday.

"Ecowind GmbH is a strategically important add-on to BayWa r.e.’s current activities which comprise a number of different subsidiaries operating internationally as project developers and traders in the fields of biogas, solar and wind power," the statement said.

BayWa said this new investment will enable it to participate in the huge potential of onshore wind power in Eastern Europe. Experts anticipate that the capacity of wind energy in Eastern Europe will grow by more than 1.0 gigawatt a year through to 2020. Eastern Europe currently has an installed wind power capacity of around 3.0 gigawatts.

Ecowind has a number of wind power projects under development with a total peak power of around 400 megawatts in Austria and the aforementioned eastern European countries.

($=0.6923 euro)

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