John Laing Group PLC (LON:JLG) announced it is to sell its Australian wind farm portfolio to asset manager First Sentier Investors for £157mln.
Shareholders will get a dividend boost since the FTSE 250 company’s policy means 5-10% of gross proceeds from divestments are distributed.
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The infrastructure projects manager said the sale value represents a small uplift to book value as at June 30, when its renewable energy portfolio was valued at £417mln, and is equivalent to a money multiple on its investment of 1.5x.
The sale is expected to complete in early 2021.
The portfolio consists of six wind assets in South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania, with a total capacity of 514MW, in which John Laing has an aggregate economic interest of 209MW.
Analysts at Peel Hunt noted the selling price for the "troublesome" assets was slightly above its recent written down valuation and still 1.5x its original investment cost in 2015-18.
"This is supportive of the NAV calculation; shows that John Laing creates value; is in line with recent management strategy; and represents 38% of the total renewable energy portfolio, which the group has committed to sell over the next two years," the broker commented.
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