GIP and Arclight Capital sell Alta Wind to NRG Yield

Terra-Gen Power, LLC, an affiliate of ArcLight Capital Partners and Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), have signed a purchase and sale agreement with NRG Yield for the sale of its 947MW Alta Wind I-V, X & XI, and Realty projects located in USA.

The wind farms will be acquired for US$870 million, plus the assumption of US$1.6 billion of non-recourse project financings and subject to customary working capital adjustments.

Terra-Gen will use proceeds from the sale to repay outstanding indebtedness under the Terra-Gen Finance credit facility, to make distributions to its owners, and for additional corporate purposes. Terra-Gen Operating Company will continue to provide asset management and operations and maintenance services to Alta Wind after the sale.

Terra-Gen originally acquired the AWEC development platform from Allco Finance in June 2008, and subsequently developed and constructed eleven interconnected wind projects totaling 1,547 MW, all of which sell power under long-term, fixed price power purchase agreements to Southern California Edison.

Citigroup and Morgan Stanley advised on the sale. Latham & Watkins served as Terra-Gen's lead transaction counsel. This transaction grows the combined wind portfolio owned by NRG Yield and its parent, NRG Energy, to 2,839 MW, making it the fifth-largest overall operating portfolio in the North American wind industry.

Alta Wind is located  in a premier wind resource area with over 30 years of wind operating history and close proximity to the Los Angeles load center. It has long-term power purchase agreements with Southern California Edison with 21 years of remaining contract life for phases I-V and 22 years, beginning in 2016, for phases X and XI.It utilizes 386 GE and Vestas turbines with commercial operations achieved within the past four years.