Northland Power has acquired a Colombian regulated utility from Brookfield Infrastructure for C$1.05bn (€721.4m).
Northland said it has agreed to buy 99.2% interest in Empresa de Energía de Boyacá (EBSA) from Fondo de Capital Privado de Infraestructura Brookfield Colombia and BCIF Holdings Colombia II.
Northland said the acquisition, which includes existing debt, will be funded initially with a fully committed 12-month C$1.1bn bridge facility.
EBSA is the sole electricity distribution company for the department of Boyacá, a region located near the capital, Bogotá.
The company serves a population of 1.3m residents across 123 municipalities and is one of the ten largest electricity distributors in Colombia.
EBSA is Northland’s second investment in Latin America following the start of construction of its 130MW La Lucha solar project in the State of Durango in Mexico in May this year.
Mike Crawley, Northland’s president and CEO, said the acquisition builds on Northland’s presence in Latin America and gives it an entry point into Colombia, a target market with a stable economy, growing middle class, strong rule of law and ease and transparency of doing business.
“We are thrilled to be acquiring this high-quality regulated Colombian utility. EBSA operates in a stable regulatory framework offering an inflation-protected perpetual cash flow profile and serves as a platform for future growth.”
