Siemens Gamesa looks to raise cash from wind farm business

Wind turbine maker Siemens Gamesa is expecting initial bids for the wind farm development unit. It is looking to sell as it focuses on returning its core business to profitability. A deal could be worth 300 million euros ($340 million) or more. Countries are clamouring for renewable energy infrastructure. This is for helping curb climate change, but wind turbine makers are struggling to protect their profits from rising steel prices and logistical logjams, which are mostly linked to the pandemic.

This is piling pressure on turbine makers’ margins. This is already thinning as governments phase out subsidies. Siemens Gamesa is formed by the 2017 merger of Spain’s Gamesa with the wind division of Germany’s Siemens. They are looking to make money out of its site development business. The bidders will be vying for a pipeline of projects. Their capacity is more than 3 gigawatts (GW) in Spain, France, Italy and Greece. Their staff team is of 50 members.

In November, Chief Executive Andreas Nauen had said that the company was seeking to monetise its development pipeline. The company had hired Bank of America to advise it on ways to do so and bidders were lining up to submit non-binding offers. The deal value would likely be worth 250 million to 300 million euros. The company could pocket as much as 500 million euros for the assets, as per the source. Among companies who may be interested in bidding are renewable energy developer Cubico, Spanish energy firms Repsol and Naturgy, the infrastructure and real assets arm of global giant Macquarie, and utilities including Portugal’s EDP, Austria’s Verbund, and Spanish peer Iberdrola. Fellow turbine maker Nordex netted 402.5 million euros. This is from selling its project pipeline to German utility RWE last year. Siemens Gamesa’s parent group Siemens Energy considered taking control of the 33% it does not already own. Siemens Energy CEO Christian Bruch stated that Siemens Gamesa had made noticeable progress in the turnaround effort.