ENERGY firm SSE is to sell a major stake in two Scottish wind farms for £635 million.
The money it raises will be used to fund a programme to buy back shares in the company from investors.
A 49.9% shareholding in the Stronelairg and Dunmaglass wind farms – both in the Highlands south of Inverness – will be sold to Greencoat UK Wind in partnership with a major UK pension fund. Greencoat already has stakes in a number of other Scottish wind farms.
SSE will use up to £200m of the proceeds of the sale to fund the share buy-back programme. The remainder will go towards reducing the company's debt.
The deal is in line with SSE’s strategy announced last November to sell stakes in its portfolio of onshore and offshore wind farms in order to create value from development and operation, as well as ownership, of assets.
Following the disposal of the Stronelairg and Dunmaglass wind farms as well as the sale of a 40% stake in the Beatrice offshore wind farm, SSE’s renewable generation capacity will be around 4 gigawatts.
Finance director Gregor Alexander said: “Stronelairg and Dunmaglass are a testament to SSE’s ability to design, develop, construct and operate first-class renewable energy assets. Onshore wind makes a huge contribution to supplying low-carbon electricity to the GB market.”
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