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Norway’s Statkraft, the biggest renewable energy producer in Europe, is looking to divest a 1.7 gigawatt portfolio of Australian assets in an auction that’s expected to draw a similar crowd of bidders seen at Tetris Energy and Yanco Delta Wind Farm.

Street Talk understands Statkraft’s bankers at Rothschild & Co mailed out sale flyers for the mooted deal at the weekend. The bidding timetable is set to land shortly, prospective bidders were told.

The up-for-grabs portfolio includes 1.5GWs of wind and about 200 megawatts of solar generation assets on Australia’s east coast. The six projects are due to begin construction this year and complete in 2027. The new owners will have a team of five full-time equivalents to assist with the development, according to the flyer.

Statkraft’s portfolio was previously owned by Spain-listed engineering and construction business Elecnor Group’s renewables arm Enerfin, which the Norwegians acquired at a $2.94 billion (€1.8 billion) enterprise valuation in November. Six months on from the purchase, Statkraft has identified some of the acquired portfolio as non-core – the Australian pipeline among it – and called in advisers to commence the sell down.

The Aussie efforts are expected to be targeted at renewables players and infrastructure investors that have shown appetite for pipelines, as opposed to businesses with big-ticket installed capacity like CWP Renewables and Tilt Renewables.

The sell-side pitch noted the portfolio’s tilt towards wind assets over solar, their prime location and a relatively short three-year development timeline. A buyer could use the Statkraft assets to fill gaps in their own pipeline, or to buy soon-to-be installed capacity if their existing projects have a longer dated development timeline.

Read the full story tomorrow and more on the Street Talk page.

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