NRG Yield To Buy Alta Wind Facility For $870 Mln

(RTTNews) - NRG Yield, Inc. (NYLD) announced an agreement with Terra-Gen Power LLC to acquire the Alta Wind facility located in Tehachapi, California, for $870 million, plus the assumption of $1.6 billion of non-recourse project financings, subject to customary working capital adjustments.

The acquisition totals 947 megawatts of operating wind capacity. It also includes a portfolio of land leases associated with the Alta Wind facility.

The deal is expected to be immediately accretive to Cash Available for Distribution per share.

The 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.

NRG Yield intends to fund the purchase price through a combination of newly issued debt, common equity and cash on hand.

The transaction is expected to increase both the annual run-rate EBITDA by $220 million and Cash Available for Distribution by $70 million, before debt service associated with acquisition financing, by 2016.

Alta Wind has contracted long-term power purchase agreements with Southern California Edison. It has 21 years of remaining contract life for phases I-V and 22 years, beginning in 2016, for phases X and XI.

David Crane, NRG Yield's Chairman and CEO, said, "The acquisition of the largest wind facility on the North American continent highlights not only our commitment to carbon-free generation, but also the strength of our acquisition capabilities to compete for contracted assets of world-class quality in the competitive marketplace.''

NRG Yield expects to close the transaction in the third quarter of 2014.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch acted as exclusive financial advisor to NRG Yield in relation to this transaction. Jones Day served as legal counsel to NRG Yield.

NYLD closed at $46.92 on Tuesday.