Hong Kong’s Li Ka-shing has bought a portfolio of 32 onshore wind farms for £350m in a deal that will tighten the billionaire’s grip on Britain’s energy market.
The deal was announced by the 96-year-old’s CK Group on Wednesday, building on a buying spree that has already seen it acquire a number of utility projects in the UK.
Under the terms of the agreement, which has been struck with Aviva Investors, CK Infrastructure will acquire wind farms such as the 18MW Den Brook wind farm in Devon and the 25MW Minnygap project near Dumfries in Scotland.
CK Group, which is listed in Hong Kong, is already one of the biggest gas, electricity and water distributors in the UK.
Its assets include UK Power Networks, the distribution network operator which it bought for £5.5bn in 2010, and the Port of Felixstowe, the UK’s biggest container port. It also holds major stakes in Northern Gas Networks and Northumbrian Water.
Elsewhere, it controls gas and electricity assets in Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Most of its new UK wind farms are small in terms of both numbers and capacity, generating just 175MW between them – less than a fifth of a typical gas fired power station.
However, their real value may lie in the potential for “repowering” the existing turbines. This means the machines can be replaced with much larger ones that generate more profit.