Transfield sells wind farm to Meridian
Transfield Services Infrastructure Fund (TSI) sold its 70-megawatt Mt Millar wind farm in South Australia to New Zealand-state owned Meridian Energy for $191 million.
The sale was a major part of TSI's initiative for capital restructuring. TSI said the sale price represented more than 13 times of the 2010 forecast earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) attributable to the farm.
Meridian chief executive Tim Lusk said the new acquisition would become an important part of the company's wind portfolio as Meridian intends to take advantage of stronger market price.
TSI's capital restructuring also included share offering to raise $110 million. The capital raising initiative would offer new securities at 70 cents. It includes a placement to institutional investors worth about $30 million, and an accelerated non-renounceable pro-rata entitlement offer to raise about $80 million.
The fund's securities are currently in trading halt while the capital raising takes place. TSI securities were last traded at the price of 90 cents before entering trading halt today.
The capital raising is expected to reduce TSI's pro-forma corporate-level net debt from $728 million to $465 million. TSI had announced earlier that it would extend its debt maturity from September 2011 to May 2015.
The company was predicting a $39.5 million net loss for financial year 2010 and EBITDA of $75 million.