Xinjiang Goldwind in talks to acquire onshore wind farms in France, Norway, Sweden, South America
29 DEC 2017
Xinjiang Goldwind Science and Technology (Jin Feng Ke Ji)[ HKG: 2208; SHE: 002202], a Chinese wind turbine manufacturer, is in talks to acquire onshore wind farms in France, Norway and Sweden, a source close to the situation said.
Such talks are in line with the company’s efforts to expand its wind farm operation business into European regions, the source explained. So far the company’s overseas wind farms via M&A are located in the US, Australia and Argentina, he noted.
The Beijing-headquartered company is also in M&A talks on the onshore wind farms in South America, the source said. Xinjiang Goldwind was mulling wind projects buys in Brazil, Reuters reported on 17 October 2017.
It welcomes advisory approaches with overseas targets, the source said.
Preference in overseas M&A targets will be only given to onshore wind farms with above 30MW in capacity each, the source said. The potential targets should be located in countries with low sovereign credit risk, he said.
Each deal size should be no more than USD 100m, the source said.
Goldwind’s war chest for overseas acquisitions will partially come from bank loans and its cash flow, the source said.
Its cash and cash equivalents were recorded at CNY 3.7bn (USD 568.1m) by this September-end.
Xinjiang Goldwind secured bank loans of nearly AUD 700m (USD 545.9m) for its investment in Australia's Stockyard Hill Wind Farm, according to the company’s announcement on 19 December 2017. The lenders include National Australia Bank [ASX: NAB], Westpac, Commonwealth Bank of Australia [ASX: CBA], ICBC [SHA: 601398], SMBC, MUFG [TYO: 8306], Mizuho Bank, Société Générale [EPA: GLE], and ABN AMRO [AMS: ABN]. It acquired 536.4MW Stockyard Hill from Origin Energy [ASX: ORG] for AUD 110m in August 2017.
Xinjiang Goldwind’s largest shareholder is Hong Kong Securities Clearing Company with a 18.23% stake.
The CNY 76.41bn market cap company reported its revenue of CNY 17bn and net profit of CNY 2.3bn in the January-September period of this year, up 0.25% and 7.26 from the same period of previous year, according to its financial report for 3Q17.
Established in March 2001, Xinjiang Goldwind primarily produces onshore and offshore wind turbines, as well as provides wind turbine maintenance services and operates wind farms. It possessed wind farms with total capacity of above 40GW by this June-end, according to its financial report 1H17.
The company declined to comment on this situation.