Portfolio
Nature of Business
Electrawinds is a Belgian energy company which produces green energy via wind turbines, biomass power plants and solar farms. The various forms of technology are developed, built, and exploited by Electrawinds itself. The Electrawinds headquarters are located in Ostend, Belgium, and the company employs about 200 staff.
Electrawinds has operational projects in Belgium, France, Italy, South Africa and Romania. The company is furthermore in the process of expanding its operations in Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Poland and Serbia) and is also active in Namibia. From 2011, Electrawinds will be building wind turbine farms in the North Sea and is involved in 2 offshore projects, namely Eldepasco and Rentel.
Investment Overview
3i acquired a minority stake in Electrawinds in December 2006, to support the company to develop new energy projects in Belgium and overseas. Our partnership was crucial in enabling Electrawinds to develop further and we introduced Dirk Kooman as non-executive director to further strengthen the board. Dirk brought a wealth of experience having worked in the renewable energy sector since 1991.
We also worked closely with Dirk and the Electrawinds management team on the acquisition of Adeol, Nuon’s French wind portfolio, and leveraged our sector experience and track record to attract a number of specialist renewable energy staff.
Our strategy of supporting Electrawinds in fulfilling its ambition of gaining a foothold in other European markets, as well as cementing its leading position in the Belgian market, was reached significantly quicker than expected – within two, rather than five years. As such, we felt it was an appropriate time to realise our investment in Electrawinds and allow the company to focus on the next stage of growth.
In August 2008 we sold our minority stake back to the majority shareholders for an undisclosed sum.
