Under the terms of the deal, MEIF4 will acquire 49% stake in Hydro Dolomiti Enel, which operates about 1,280MW of hydropower plants, mainly located in the Province of Trento in Italy.
MEIF4 is managed by Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets.
The transaction is subject to customary completion adjustments. Dolomiti Energia holds the remaining 51% stake in HDE.
In particular, Hydro Dolomiti Enel owns 26 large hydro power plants, which have a combined power generation capacity of 1,277.3MW, as well as 2.4MW of small hydro power plants.
In 2014, HDE generated 4.2 TeraWatt hours (TWh) of electricity, and also reported €247m of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA).
The divestment is a part of Enel Group’s effort to reduce its net financial debt.
Enel also plans to offload minority stakes aimed at raising funds raise funds for other growth opportunities.
In September, Enel Green Power, the Enel Group company, signed a deal to sell the entire stake in Finerge Gestão de Projectos Energéticos (Finerge), to Portuguese company First State Wind Energy Investments, for about $1bn.
The deal is comes in line with the company’s plans to exit the Portuguese renewable energy market as part of its 2015-2019 business plan, and shift its focus on fast growing markets.
The company plans to optimize its portfolio and seek opportunities in countries which have more development potential.
As part of it strategic business plan, the company plans to invest €9.6bn and boost its capacity by 7.1GW by 2019.
Image: Hydro Dolomiti Enel generated 4.2 TWh of electricity last year. Photo: courtesy of markuso/FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
