Uruguay Utility Raises $77.6 Million to Build Biggest Wind Farm

(Bloomberg) — The Uruguayan wind energy trust Fideicomiso
Financiero Pampa raised $77.6 million in two rounds of equity
financing to help build the country’s largest wind farm.

Pampa sold $62.6 million of series B shares in a placement
on the Montevideo Stock Exchange aimed at institutional
investors March 23. The offer was almost six times
oversubscribed with demand at $368.9 million.

That followed a March 19 offering for retail investors that
raised $15 million in series A shares. Those shares pay
dividends with an estimated annual return of 11.5 percent over
22 years, and a guaranteed minimum of 4 percent, according to a
presentation prepared by Uruguay’s state-owned utility power
UTE.

UTE, formally known as Administracion Nacional de Usinas &
Trasmisiones Electricas, will contribute $19 million in equity
to Pampa.

Demand for the series A shares was $100.6 million and
retail investors offered $119 million for the series B shares,
even though they don’t guarantee returns, UTE chairman Gonzalo
Casaravilla said at press conference March 23. Bids from
institutional investors including banks, pension funds and
insurers totaled $250 million.

Pampa will also finance the $321 million wind project with
a 15-year, $224 million loan from the German lenders KfW and
BayernLB.

The 141-megawatt Pampa wind farm in central Uruguay’s
Tacuarembo department is expected to go into operation by
mid-2016 and will eventually supply electricity for about
180,000 homes. Pampa has agreed to buy 59 turbines from
Germany’s Nordex SE.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Ken Parks in Montevideo at
kparks8@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at
landberg@bloomberg.net;
James Attwood at
jattwood3@bloomberg.net
Will Wade

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