JP Morgan Asset Management acquires wind assets from Infinis

Terra Firma has announced that the Infinis Group has entered into an agreement to sell the companies which together own the onshore wind assets of the Infinis Group, to institutional investors advised by J.P. Morgan Asset Management.

The sale is expected to close by early in the second quarter of 2017. The Infinis Group’s onshore wind portfolio is one of the largest independently owned operating wind portfolios in the UK. The portfolio has 343 MW generating capacity across 19 sites and an additional 66MW site that is expected to become operational by the end of February 2017.

This transaction follows the sale of the Infinis Group’s landfill gas assets to 3i Infrastructure plc in December 2016. When complete, the sale announced today will complete the sale by Terra Firma of all of the Infinis Group’s operating assets (The Infinis Group retains a portfolio of 14 onshore wind sites in the development phase, which it will look to sell in due course).

Guy Hands, Chairman and Chief Investment Officer of Terra Firma, said:

“I’m delighted that the sale agreement announced today, which follows the sale of the landfill gas assets last December, will enable Terra Firma to realize fully one of our most successful investments. Under our ownership, Infinis was transformed from a non-core and largely outsourced unit within a waste management company into one of the UK’s leading independent renewable power generation companies.

Today there is strong demand in the market for cash yielding, infrastructure assets of scale and Infinis’ onshore wind portfolio is one of the few platforms of scale in the UK that has the operational capability for further growth.”

Matthew LeBlanc, Chief Investment Officer, J.P. Morgan Asset Management, Infrastructure Investments Group, said:

"We are delighted to acquire the onshore operational wind interests of Infinis' UK wind portfolio from Terra Firma. The acquisition continues our investment momentum in renewables, complementing the existing investment base, and increases our renewables energy production capacity to over 3,200 MW. We are excited to partner with the management team and our other renewables businesses to continue to grow a truly pan-European renewables independent power producer."

The Infinis Group began as the non-core energy division of Waste Recycling Group (WRG), one of the leading waste management companies in the UK which Terra Firma acquired in 2003. Terra Firma identified it as a profitable growth business underpinned at the time of acquisition by a growing focus on alternative energy sources and a strong regulatory regime which encouraged investment. The division was spun out from WRG as Infinis in 2006.