First Wind To Launch Sale, Equity Hunt

First Wind is about to launch a search for capital and a stake sale in its Northeast wind farm fleet as a way to capitalize its development pipeline since deciding to shelve its initial public offering. Morgan Stanley has been hired to raise capital at the holding company level, while Credit Suisse and Macquarie Capital run a process to sell stakes in its wind farms in the Northeast. Teasers have not gone out and a timeline for the process could not be learned.

First Wind wants to maintain a stake in the operating assets, says a banker. Infrastructure and pension funds are expected to be interested in buying stakes in its 270 MW Northeast fleet, observers say. First Wind will likely be considered an attractive partner, one banker says, pointing to its operating experience.

It has three operating farms in Maine : the 42 MW Mars Hill, 57 MW Stetson and 26 MW Stetson II. The developer owns the 125 MW Cohocton and 20 MW Steel Winds in New York . The farms have offtakers. At least two projects, including the 50 MW Rollins project in Maine and a 15 MW expansion to Steel Winds, are expected to be operating next year.

The Boston-based developer has 200-250 MW of projects it expects to bring to construction next year and had planned on using funds from the IPO to finance a portion of the development costs (PFR, 10/22). Backers D.E. Shaw & Co. and Madison Dearborn are not looking to exit the company, but want to pull in additional third-party investments, says an observer.

First Wind iced its IPO after investor commitments came in at the $16-18 range, below the roughly $19-20 range the company was targeting (PFR, 11/5).

A Macquarie spokeswoman and First Wind spokesman declined to comment while calls to officials at D.E. Shaw and Madison Dearborn were not returned. Spokespeople at Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley did not reply to inquiries.