Marubeni and J-POWER Acquire Spanish Wind Power Company

Marubeni Corporation (one of the Japan's major general trading companies) and the Electric Power Development Co., Ltd. (a Japanese company known as J-POWER) recently acquired SEC, a wind power generation company headquartered in the state of Galicia, Spain. The purchase was announced on 5 March 2003.

Prior to the acquisition, Marubeni and J-POWER had established the holding company SEC Hold Co., each with a 50 percent share, to manage the finances for the acquisition. It purchased all the SEC shares from Gamesa, a Spanish wind plant manufacturer, for 765 million euro (about 10 billion yen).

As a member of the European Union, which has taken a proactive stance on measures to deal with global warming, Spain is actively promoting the development of renewable energy. In fact, Spain follows Germany to rank second in the world for wind power generation.

Marubeni has already made some progress n EU countries in promoting the use of renewable energy and distributing the power generated as well as various benefits, including "green certificates" and environmental tax exemptions. The company intends to undertake the joint development of wind power generation in Spain, the U.K. and Germany, and the marketing in the U.K. of power generated by smaller power generation companies as well as the related benefits. Marubeni also plans to invest in projects in central and eastern Europe, in cooperation with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Meanwhile, for J-POWER the recent acquisition is its first wind power generation business abroad.



Posted: 2003/06/08 01:36:21 PM
Japanese version