(Adds figures on wind energy market)
MILAN (Thomson Financial) - Italian energy group ERG SpA will merge its
renewable energy activities into its listed unit Enertad SpA in an operation
that will raise its Enertad stake to 77.4 percent from 68.4 percent, the two
companies said late Monday.
ERG will transfer to Enertad part of its ERG Power & Gas unit in exchange
for about 37.8 million newly issued Enertad shares, to form on Oct.1 a new
company called ERG Renew.
In addition, Enertad will launch, by the end of the year and depending on
market conditions, a rights issue of up to 200 million euros, to which ERG
intends to subscribe pro quota, they said.
The capital hike is aimed at financing the group's plans to develop its
renewable energy activities, mainly wind power.
Enertad said it plans to invest 880 million euros, of which 863 million
euros will be in wind power, in its 2008 to 2011 business plan period to reach
an installed capacity of about 700 MW at the end of 2011.
Enertad wants to increase its domestic wind energy market share in terms of
installed capacity to between 10 percent and 12 percent at the end of 2011 from
2.9 percent at the end of 2007.
Enertad ranked ninth in the Italian wind energy market at the end of 2007.
The first three largest players were IP Maestrale, with a 19.4 percent market
share, Enel SpA, with 11.7 percent, and Edison SpA, 10.0 percent.
In the business plan, Enertad's EBITDA is targeted to rise 65 percent per
year to above 140 million euros in 2011, and reach around 200 million euros in
2012.
In the first quarter, Enertad booked a net profit of 1.5 million euros, down
44.2 percent on the year, while revenues rose by 17.8 percent to 13.6 million
euros and EBITDA by 6.0 percent to 8.1 million euros.
Revenues and EBITDA benefited from the contribution of wind farms in France,
which more than offset a decline at domestic wind operations.
Net debt rose 8.1 percent to 120.8 million euros at the end of March.
danilo.masoni@thomsonreuters.com
dm/sal/dm/sal/dm/ra
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