On Wednesday, General Electric (GE 1.02%) announced that a consortium comprised of its Energy Financial Services group (GEEFS), the asset management arm of Munich Re and ERGO (MEAG), and EDF Energies Nouvelles is buying 32 French wind farms from Iberdrola.
All 32 onshore wind farms are operational, and boast a combined 160 wind turbines with total capacity of 321.4 megawatts, selling this electricity under long-term contracts with subsidies from France's feed-in tariff.
The transaction is valued at 350 million euros ($463.4 million), with a possible "earn-out" of up to 50 million euros ($66 million) additionally if the assets hit certain production targets over the next five years.
Upon the transaction's completion and assuming regulatory approval, GEEFS will own 40% of the assets, MEAG 40%, and EDF Energies Nouvelles 20%. EDF Energies Nouvelles will be responsible for operating and maintaining the wind farms. GE will provide new technology to boost the turbines' efficiency.
