NTR increases share in US wind firm

IRISH INVESTMENT FIRM NTR has increased its shareholding in Wind Capital Group, its US-based wind energy business.

Increasing its ownership from 62 per cent to 97 per cent, the company declined to put a figure on the deal.

Speaking yesterday, NTR chief executive Michael McNicholas said the increased stake would give NTR greater control over the strategy of the wind company at a time when its operating assets were increasing.

“Wind Capital Group has made significant progress in the last year and is on track to have 350MW of operating assets and a strong pipeline of follow on projects,” Mr McNicholas said.

“Our increased shareholding consolidates our position in the company at a time in which a substantive amount of operating assets are coming on-stream. Wind Capital represents a solid asset and is well positioned as a platform for NTRs renewable activities in the US market.”

Last month NTR agreed further funding in Wind Capital Group, closing a deal with a group of international institutions that allows it to borrow €270 million to fund a project in Kansas. NTR also announced plans this week to reduce its stake in US ethanol producer Green Plains Renewable Energy (GRPE) to 3.5 per cent from 23 per cent.

Mr McNicholas said NTR’s involvement with Green Plains which is based in Omaha, Nebraska, had evolved from being “a founding shareholder to being one of a number of shareholders in a Nasdaq listed company.”

He said NTR felt “the timing was right” to exit its significant shareholding and “to take the capital and use part of it to increase our position on wind and other parts of it to use across the group.”

NTR, the largest shareholder in Green Plains, is to sell 3.7 million shares back to the company at an undisclosed price. NTR also announced the completion of a secondary offering with Jefferies Company that saw a public offering of an additional 3.45 million shares of its GPRE common stock at a price to the underwriter of $10.06 per share.

The shares were sold to the public at $10.41 per share. Upon closing of the secondary offering and GPREs repurchase of shares, NTR will raise $71.9 million, of which $44.8 million will be immediately receivable in cash.

NTR was established in 1978. Its main owners are chairman Tom Roche and his family, who hold a 39.61 per cent stake in the business, and Irish investment group One51, which owns 24.46 per cent.