John Laing confirms sale of Aussie wind stakes

UK infrastructure investor John Laing Group Plc (LON:JLG) has agreed to unload its stakes in 514 MW of wind assets in Australia in a deal worth AUD 285 million (USD 202.2m/EUR 172.7m).

The buyer is Australian fund manager First Sentier Investors (FSI).

John Laing announced it has signed an agreement for the sale in a bourse filing on Monday. The UK firm has an aggregate economic interest of 209 MW in the six wind farms in the Aussie portfolio. The projects are located in the states of South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania.

According to local media reports, Japan’s ENEOS Holdings (TYO:5020) and Australia’s Infrastructure Capital Group (ICG) also bid for the assets.

John Laing acquired its stakes in the Aussie wind assets in the 2015-2018 period. The 112-MW Granville wind farm in Tasmania and the 316.8-MW Hornsdale project being developed by France’s Neoen in South Australia are some of the projects in the portfolio.

The UK firm explained that the selling price represents “a small uplift” to its book value for the portfolio as of end-June. The deal is pending regulatory clearance and is seen to close by early 2021.

"This sale is in line with our commitment to realise assets to maximise value for shareholders, and marks an important milestone in our strategy to realise fully our Renewable Energy portfolio over the next 2 years," said CEO Ben Loomes.

(AUD 1.0 = USD 0.710/EUR 0.606)

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