Babcock & Brown Wind Partners (BBW) posted a net profit of $36.77 million, up 143% on last year. The group said it was focused on efficient management of its existing portfolio of wind farms and would make selective accretive acquisitions and divestments in the future.
Chief executive officer Miles George said the recent sale of BBW’s Spanish wind energy portfolio, combined with the continued strong operational performance of the business, would provide the company with flexibility to consider reinvestment and capital management initiatives.
Earlier in August, BBW sold its Spanish wind energy portfolio for a sale price of $1.42 billion which, subject to completion, represented an estimated profit before transaction costs of approximately $266 million in FY09.
As at 30 June 2008, consolidated market gearing was approximately 65.3%, the firm explained, and interest cover ratio of 2.6 times was above BBW’s newly stated target of 2.5 times.
"The recently announced sale of BBW’s Spanish wind energy portfolio will reduce net debt by over 40% to $1.88 billion upon completion," BBW said.
Accordingly, on a pro-forma basis BBW’s consolidated market gearing would be 56.9% with an interest cover ratio 3.5 times.
Total revenue was $422.7 million for the full year ended 30 June, an increase of 146%.
"The uplift in revenue can be attributed to a full period contribution from the US06 Portfolio, acquisition of the Enersis and US07 Portfolios, and a contribution from the Lake Bonney 2 wind farm which was previously under construction," the firm said.
EBITDA from operations increased by 164% to $333.7 million in FY08 compared to $126.5million in FY07.
"This increase reflects the abovementioned growth in the portfolio."
Furthermore, BBW said EBITDA from its wind energy portfolio had exhibited a compound annual growth of 127% pa since IPO with a current portfolio EBITDA margin of 79%.
The company noted that a 121% increase in generation to 5,145GWh for the 12 months to 30 June, reflected a portfolio that had grown significantly.
BBW applied a total of $2.02 billion towards acquisition and construction projects during FY08, comprising $1.37 billion for acquisitions totalling 831MW and $655 million for construction projects totalling 369MW.
The group said committed CAPEX and future construction costs of wind farms currently under construction are fully covered by existing cash of $170 million and committed funding sources of $448 million.
The board declared a fully tax deferred distribution of 14.5c per stapled security for the full year ended 30 June 2008.
The final distribution of 7.25c per stapled security will be paid to security holders on or about 18 September 2008.
"The ongoing efficient management of our operations, prudent risk management practices and balance sheet capacity has enabled us to deliver a 16% increase in full year distributions which continue to be fully covered by net operating cash flow after debt repayment and are fully tax deferred," Mr George said.
BBW set its revised guidance for FY09 net operating cash flow is 21.4c per stapled security.
The FY09 distribution guidance has been re-stated to not less than 9c per stapled security, which accords with BBW’s long held policy of paying distributions from available net operating cash flow after debt repayments.
At 1431 AEST, Babcock & Brown Wind was up 0.5c at $1.405.
