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Sempra’s Ienova Buys Mexico’s Biggest Wind Farm from Blackstone

5 September 2016

(Bloomberg) Infraestructura Energetica Nova agreed to buy the Ventika wind energy complex in northern Mexico from units of Blackstone Group for US$375m, the second large-scale acquisition this year by the country’s only publicly traded energy company.

Ienova, as Sempra Energy’s Mexico unit is known, will acquire 100 percent of the Ventika I and II wind parks in Nuevo Leon state from Blackstone Energy Partners, Blackstone’s Fisterra Energy unit and minority partners, the buyer said in a statement Monday. Ienova will also assume $477 million of long-term financing obtained by Ventika, the country’s biggest wind complex with an installed capacity to generate 252 megawatts from 84 turbines.

Ventika, which was developed by Fisterra Energy and Cemex SAB, began operations in April. The purchase price can be adjusted before the deal’s close in the fourth quarter, Ienova said.

The Ventika purchase follows Ienova’s $1.12 billion acquisition of Petroleos Mexicanos’s 50 percent stake in pipeline company Gasoductos de Chihuahua, which is expected to close this quarter.

In June, Ienova and TransCanada Corp. won rights to develop a $2.2 billion underwater pipeline to connects south Texas with Mexico’s Tuxpan port in the Gulf of Mexico. Sempra announced in July that the company will scale back its share buyback plans and use the additional cash to help finance the marine natural gas pipeline. Sempra plans to spend more than $3 billion in Latin America through 2020, according to a July company presentation.