Impax grows German wind presence

Epuron, the German and French wind development business which has been owned by London-listed fund manager Impax Asset Management since the beginning of 2011, has acquired the Cottbuser Halde operating wind park in Brandenburg, eastern Germany.

The wind farm was acquired from Green Wind Renewables, part of Danish wind energy group Green Wind Energy, which is currently in reconstruction proceedings under Danish bankruptcy law. The purchase more than doubles Epuron’s German operational wind park portfolio from 23 megawatts (MW) to 51MW.

Cottbuser Halde has been acquired by Impax’s New Energy Investors II LP (NEF II), which closed on €330 million in September last year. Operational since 2009, the asset has long-term project financing in place with Deutsche Kreditbank.

Daniel von Preyss, managing director of private equity at Impax, said the aim was to increase Epuron’s portfolio of operating wind assets in Germany and France “both by organic growth – i.e., further developing the projects in Epuron’s pipeline and constructing them – and by add-on acquisitions”.

Based in Hamburg and Paris, Epuron has planned and realised wind farms with a combined output of more than 300MW and aims to become a medium-sized independent power producer.

In January this year, Impax’s NEF II fund completed its first solar deal in Italy with the purchase of a 9MW portfolio of operating solar PV plants, mainly based near Puglia, from Norway’s Scatec Solar. The fund already had wind investments in France, Germany and Poland.