February 23, 2005 02:30 PM US Eastern Timezone FPL Energy Announces Completion of Subsidiary Bond Offerings JUNO BEACH, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 23, 2005--FPL Energy, LLC, (NYSE:FPL), today announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, FPL Energy National Wind, LLC, has closed a private offering of $365 million of 5.608 percent, 19-year senior secured bonds. The bonds are rated Baa3 by Moody's Investor Service, BBB- by Standard & Poor's and BBB by Fitch Ratings.
The company also announced that FPL Energy National Wind Portfolio, LLC, another wholly owned subsidiary of FPL Energy, LLC, has closed a private offering of $100 million of 6.125 percent, 14-year senior secured bonds. These bonds are rated Ba2 by Moody's Investor Service, BB- by Standard & Poor's and BB by Fitch Ratings.
FPL Energy intends to use substantially all of the net proceeds it will receive from the offerings to repay a portion of the investment made by the company in the development, acquisition and/or construction of nine wind power projects.
"The response from investors to the National Wind financings was extraordinary and is further validation of wind energy as a viable investment option," said Moray Dewhurst, chief financial officer of FPL Group. "As the largest owner and operator of wind turbines in the U.S. with more than 2,750 megawatts in operation, FPL Energy is the only wind generator in the nation with the scale and diversity of projects to put this type of portfolio together."
The financing consisted of nine projects in five diverse wind regions of the U.S., representing 534 megawatts of capacity. The nine wind facilities included in the financing are located in North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Wyoming.
Upon the consummation of this financing, FPL Energy will have raised nearly $1.1 billion of long-term, limited recourse project financing on 17 wind projects totaling 1,531 megawatts of capacity, since July of 2003.
FPL Energy is the largest generator of electricity from wind in the United States with more than 2,750 megawatts of capacity in operation. The company said it plans to add 250 to 750 megawatts of new wind to its portfolio by the end of 2005 with approximately 220 megawatts of that total already under construction.
FPL Energy is a subsidiary of FPL Group, Inc. (NYSE:FPL), one of the nation's largest providers of electricity-related services with annual revenues of more than $10 billion. FPL Energy is a leading wholesale generator utilizing clean fuels such as natural gas, wind, solar, hydroelectric and nuclear to generate electricity. It is the nation's leader in wind energy, with 43 wind facilities in operation in 15 states. Its sister subsidiary, Florida Power & Light Company, is one of the nation's largest electric utilities, serving more than 4.2 million customer accounts in Florida. Additional information is available on the Internet at http://www.FPLEnergy.com, http://www.FPLGroup.com and http://www.FPL.com.
Note to Editors: High-resolution logos and executive head shots are available for download at http://www.fpl.com/news/contents/logos.shtml .
Contacts
FPL Energy, LLC, Juno BeachSteve Stengel, 888-867-3050
