Mainstream Renewable planning EUR 120m equity sale - report

Mainstream Renewable Power has plans to sell up to EUR 120 million (USD 140m) in equity to investors once it has divested its 450-MW Neart na Gaoithe offshore wind project in Scotland, the Sunday Independent reports.

The Ireland-based firm has tasked KPMG with finding buyers for the project, which has been delayed by legal action by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), but is now seen to finally take off.

Mainstream announced last week that conservation charity RSPB has been unsuccessful with its latest attempt to attack consent for Neart na Gaoithe and three other Scottish offshore wind projects. Work on the 450-MW wind farm is now expected to begin in 2018.

In early 2016 Mainstream was in exclusive discussions with InterGen, Siemens Project Ventures, The Marguerite Fund and Infrared Capital to take the offshore wind farm to financial close and into construction. The deal did not go through at the time because of a judicial review into the government's decision to approve the project.

Neart na Gaoithe, the 784-MW Inch Cape, and the Seagreen Alpha and Seagreen Bravo schemes got development consents back in 2014, but in January 2015 RSPB Scotland challenged the Scottish government’s decision to approve them. The Outer House of the Court of Session in July 2016 ruled that there were flaws in the approval process for the projects, but Scottish Ministers were successful in their appeal against that decision, in May 2017.

Mainstream Renewable has built 450 MW of renewables capacity now in commercial operation and it has 920 MW in construction or nearing financial close, according to its website.

(EUR 1 = USD 1.16)

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