HONG KONG: A joint venture controlled by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing agreed to buy the Portuguese wind-farm developer Iberwind Group in a deal worth as much as 288 million euros (US$324 million), the purchasers said here the other day in a regulatory filing.
Li’s Power Assets Holdings Ltd and his Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings Ltd each own half of the venture, according to a filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Iberwind is owned by venture capital firm Magnum Capital Industrial Partners, which is based in Spain and Portugal.
The deal is subject to regulatory approvals.
Each of the partners will pay a “maximum commitment” of 144 million euros, according to the filing.
Iberwind produces about 684 megawatts of power from 31 wind farms, representing about 15 percent of the Portuguese wind market by installed capacity, Power Assets Holdings said.
The acquisition allows Li’s venture to “expand its existing renewable energy platform globally, and is consistent with the group’s strategy of investing in power infrastructure opportunities around the world,” the companies said in the filing.
Meanwhile, Britain’s antitrust regulator triggered a possible tug-of-war with the EU over who should probe CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd’s plan to acquire Telefonica SA’s O2 unit in the UK.
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on Friday said that it asked the European Commission for jurisdiction over the review because the deal’s impact would be most felt by UK customers.
The commission in Brussels has already started to examine the tie-up and set an Oct. 16 deadline for an initial decision.
Li’s CK Hutchison Holdings agreed to acquire the O2 unit in March, creating Britain’s biggest wireless provider by customers.
The CMA said it has received support from the telecom industry in making the request, according to the statement.
Given the clear links with a separate deal it is probing between BT Group PLC and EE Ltd, “it would be more efficient to also examine the merger between Three and O2, in particular to avoid duplication and fragmentation,” the CMA said.
The commission generally rejects such requests, as it develops ground rules for mobile-phone competition.
EU regulators spurned a similar UK bid for jurisdiction over the deal that created EE five years ago.
“We have had open and constructive discussions with both the European Commission and the relevant authorities in the UK over several months,” CK Hutchison Holdings said in a statement.
“We remain confident that the proposed acquisition will be cleared,” it added.
The commission said by e-mail that it “has received the referral request and will assess it.”
