US windpower firm Clipper plans September UK float
Tue Aug 30, 2005 5:58 PM BST
LONDON (Reuters) - California-based wind-power company Clipper Windpower said on Tuesday it planned to list its shares in London in two weeks.
Clipper and its adviser, investment bank Lehman Brothers (LEH.N: Quote, Profile, Research), declined to comment on how much the company planned to raise or how much it would be valued at as part of the listing on London's junior AIM market.
The shares are due to start trading on September 14, according to a regulatory filing.
It was not immediately clear why the U.S. company had opted for a UK listing, and it made no further comment beside the filing particulars.
Clipper, whose UK chairman is former Olympic cox and Conservative sports minister Colin Moynihan and which says actor Anthony Hopkins is an investor, was formed in 2001. It said it has established two U.S. wind projects valued at $240 million (135 million pounds).
A source close to the company told Reuters in June that Clipper planned to use any IPO proceeds to develop a more efficient wind turbine.
The Santa Barbara-based company said it is one of the world leaders in wind turbine technology, which should cut the cost of wind energy production.
Its website said its two projects total 205 megawatts, and it has a development portfolio of 1,100 megawatts in the U.S. and Mexico plus the largest planned project in the wind industry -- the 3,000 megawatt Rolling Thunder site in South Dakota.
Moynihan was appointed last year to run Clipper's business outside the Americas, which focuses on manufacturing the new generation of the firm's wind turbine and the development of offshore wind farms.
Clipper reported revenue of $5.2 million in 2003 and raised $10 million through private equity funding in 2002.
The company said the global wind power market is expected to grow by 15-30 percent per year for the foreseeable future.
It said renewable energy sources generate about 3 percent of the country's electricity supply -- with 15 percent of that generated by wind power -- and the government intends to lift the renewable energy share to 15 percent by 2015.
