Theolia may buy wind farms from troubled owners

By Benjamin Mallet

             

PARIS (Reuters) - French renewable power company Theolia sees the current economic gloom as a chance to buy wind farms from financially stretched owners and is close to finding a new partner to invest in wind projects, its chief executive said on Friday.

             

Theolia, which has been loss-making except last year when it benefited from a capital injection, hopes to achieve a net profit in 2013, provided an uncertain economic climate does not delay its projects, Fady Khallouf told Reuters.

             

"A few players have tried to develop wind farms and they reached a certain point but the current economic climate makes them vulnerable," Khallouf said in an interview. "We can take over and accelerate their projects."

             

The CEO said the arrival of a new partner to join its Theolia Utilities Investment Company (TUIC) joint venture with Swiss power group Industrielle Werke Basel (IWB) was "imminent."

             

The venture plans to invest more than 300 million euros ($411 million) in wind farm projects in France, Germany and Italy.

             

"We are about to finalize the entry of a new player of the same size as IWB...(It) is a European utility," Khallouf said.

             

Theolia has 70 percent in TUIC and IWB the balance. The investment vehicle for utilities and power companies will have 100 million euros of equity investment and plans to raise the rest through debt for wind projects.

             

($1 = 0.730 Euros)

             

(Writing by Dominique Vidalon; Editing by James Regan)