News / Viking adviser hit by profits warning
THE FINANCIAL brokers advising local wind farm developer Viking Energy is in line to make a loss this year due to a significant slowdown in financial transactions.
Edinburgh-based Quayle Munro is estimating that Shetland Charitable Trust’s 45 per cent interest in the 457 megawatt project could already be worth between £50 million and £130 million.
In a recent interview Quayle Munro managing director Rob Cormie told the Scotsman newspaper, that the current year was unlikely to be as successful as the previous one when QM made a pre-tax profit of £3 million.
“Things have been pulled, they didn’t happen or they were delayed. I don’t think I have seen a transaction come in ahead of schedule,” he told the Scotsman.
The corporate finance adviser, involved in 130 major transactions worth more than £8 billion over the last five years, is relatively new to the renewable energy sector.
Traditionally focused on projects in the media, education and technology sectors, Quayle Munro started showing an interest in renewables about three years ago, and have since said that the sector holds huge potential for the company.
Since then, QM has been involved in five transactions involving onshore wind farms:
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phase 2 (six 2.3 megawatt turbines) of the Høg Jæren EnergiPark wind farm, in Norway;
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the £94m financing of Carraig Gheal Wind Farm, Argyll;
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acquisition and financing of a majority stake in a 26 megawatt wind farm in Cambridgeshire by Barclays Infrastructure Funds;
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sale of the majority shareholding in the 52 megawatt Baillie Wind Farm Limited, in Caithness, to Norwegian company Statkraft;
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raising and structuring project finance for a 73 megawatt onshore wind farm near Stavanger, Norway.
The company started advising Viking Energy earlier this year, including presenting profit projections to charitable trust members during a seminar held on 12 June prior to the trust’s decision to invest a further £6.3 million into the controversial project.
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