$24m Brookfield deal for California wind farm

Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners (BREP) has bought part of a West Coast wind farm located next to its existing wind power operation in Tehachapi, California.

A spokesman for Brookfield noted Western Wind Energy Corporation is located next to its collective 274-megawatt (MW) wind concern.

BREP paid $24 million, or $2.28 per share, for 16.2 percent of Western Wind, according to a Brookfield press statement. The announcement propelled stock in Western Wind to a 10 percent gain. The Vancouver-based company is trading for $2.33 a share on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX).

Western Wind, operating a total of 154MW worth of power in California, as well as a 10.5MW wind project in Arizona, put itself up for sale in June. The company, which in October fended off a hostile takeover, said BREP agreed to make up the difference should a prospective acquirer offer a price higher than $2.28 a share.

Western Wind named Goodman & Company Investment Council as the seller in the Brookfield transaction. Investment bank Rothschild is advising Western Wind.

BREP, a Brookfield Asset Management (BAM) business, has been on an acquisition spree owed to a $300 million secondary offering. Last month, BREP bought a dam project from Alcoa.

BREP is a $13 billion publicly traded partnership formed in last 2011 when BAM merged its renewable energy businesses.