HMC Capital, the listed fund that has created a new energy platform chaired by former prime minister Julia Gillard, says it has completed its delayed purchase of the Victorian assets of Neoen Australia, and confirmed that it is seeking an outside investor in its new business.
HMC agreed last year to pay $950 million for Neoen’s Victoria assets, which Neoen was obliged to sell because of competition concerns relating to its new owner Brookfield, which also has a controlling stake in Victorian network group AusNet.
The purchase was to be completed by July 1, but was delayed until August 1 due to unspecified reasons. It includes the Victoria Big Battery, the Bulgana renewable hub (wind and battery), and the Numurkah solar farm, and a pipeline of 2.8 GW of development assets, including Kentbruck wind and Moorabool big battery.
The Bulgana project was hit by a fire incident in late May that caused the shutdown of all its 56 turbines for a while. HMC says in its statement that 51 of the 56 turbines are now back on line, and expects most of the rest to be returned to service in coming months.
This, however, is a new timeline. It had said on July 1 that it expected all turbines to be back on line “in the coming weeks” and that the wind farm would to return to full operation prior to financial close.
HMC says the incident is not expected to have any “material impact” on forecast cashflows or returns from the asset, and said pre-tax earnings (EBITDA) for the Victoria portfolio amounted to $64 million in the 12 months to June 30, which was around 6.5 per cent ahead of the previous corresponding period.
“Recent performance has demonstrated the ability of the assetsto generate growing income and the strategic nature of battery storage assets in the National Electricity Market,” it noted in a statement.
However, the company also confirmed tha it has appointed global private capital advisor Campbell Lutyens to undertake a process to “introduce third party capital into the Energy Transition Platform”, which is chaired by Gillard.
“Given the unique scale and quality of the platform, which includes a strategic base of operating assets as well as a significant, high-quality development pipeline, we believe the investment proposition is highly attractive for incoming investors into the platform,” the statement said.
CEO David Di Pilla said the company’s confidence in its “investment thesis around Energy Transition remains as strong as ever.” he said the intention was to release more capital to invest in the group’s “economic flywheel.”
Gerard Dover, who is CEO of the HMC Capital Energy Transition Platform, says the Neoen Victorian development team have joined the business and will work on projects including the 600 MW Kentbruck wind project, currently going through state planning approvals process, and the up to 600 MW Moorabool battery.
Dover header Stor-Energy, a battery business that last week unveiled its first major Australian project, a 150 MW, 1450 MWh planned facility near Columboola in Queensland. The Moorabool battery also appears well placed to benefit from system strength requirements identified by VicGrid to support the rollout of renewable energy zones in Victoria.
