Starwood to buy NextEra assets for $760m

The Connecticut-based firm has agreed to buy two gas-generating facilities in Pennsylvania in a deal that is expected to close in Q4.

Starwood Energy, an energy infrastructure investment firm based in Greenwich, Connecticut, has agreed to buy two natural gas-generating plants in Pennsylvania from Florida-based NextEra Energy Resources.

The assets to be acquired are the 790MW combined-cycle Marcus Hook Energy Centre and the 50MW simple-cycle Marcus Hook 50 Energy Centre, NextEra said in a statement. The deal is valued at $760 million.

NextEra expects the transaction, which is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2016, to result in net proceeds of approximately $255 million after paying off existing project-related financing.

“This transaction is part of our ongoing strategy to further optimise our power generation assets, while recycling capital into our growing long-term contracted asset portfolio,” said Armando Pimentel, NextEra’s president and chief executive. 

“This is a quality asset with a strong operating history in a very attractive location,” added Himanshu Saxena, a senior managing director and co-head of Starwood Energy.

It was unclear whether Starwood Energy would be funding the transaction through Starwood Energy Infrastructure Fund II, a vehicle the firm closed on $983 million in January 2014 and which, according to Infrastructure Investor Research & Analytics, is currently being invested.

Starwood Energy declined to comment beyond NextEra's statement.